An Introspective Approach to Nursing Intimate Partner Violence Victims in Japan

The number of intimate partner violence (IPV) cases has been increasing in Japan since the 1990s. Many victims tend to hide their victimization and conceal their clinic or hospital visits. In these cases, nurses face feelings of incongruity toward patients. We aimed to explore if the process of introspection can provide better care for patients who have experienced IPV and prevent burnout in nurses. We hypothesized that introspection training would have a positive effect on nursing interventions.

We interviewed Japanese nurses who handled IPV cases between 2006 and 2009 and analyzed responses on the Emotional Question Scale (EQS). We used a modified grounded theory approach to analyze narratives from 20 nurses.

We found that nurses experienced difficulties in coping with their incongruence toward patients, did not always feel capable of IPV care, and lacked experience in caring for patients experiencing IPV. Introspection training did not lead to significant differences in EQS scores, although scores on the self-management, interpersonal management, and situation management subscales were correlated significantly. This indicated that utilizing the introspection process would result in EQS improvement.

We concluded that the process of objectification of incongruity is effective in detecting hidden IPV and helpful in identifying negative feelings, thus preventing burnout in nurses.