Child healthcare nurses' experiences of asking new mothers about intimate partner violence

To investigate child healthcare nurses' experiences of asking mothers of 8-month-old children about intimate partner violence using a two-step questionnaire.

Exposure to intimate partner violence is detrimental to women and to their children, and its early detection is vital. Child health care is a promising setting for detecting intimate partner violence.

The overall project had a quasi-experimental design and was employed in 2015 at 12 child healthcare centres in Sweden. The project aimed to test a two-step method for talking about intimate partner violence with mothers (n = 198) at the child healthcare centre. In this article, we disclose the experiences of the intervention from the perspective of the nurses (n = 13) who were educated and involved in the intervention.

Data were collected by semi-structured interviews, analysed by thematic analysis.

Five categories emerged: using the two-step questionnaire method, asking about IPV as an important issue, being comfortable in the professional role and with asking about IPV, the importance of time and place in asking about IPV and spillover effects.

Asking mothers visiting the child health clinic about their experiences of intimate partner violence was seen as an important task. Using a questionnaire could facilitate asking, but the questionnaire must be short and easy to use. Furthermore, the time and place for initiating a talk about this sensitive topic must be carefully chosen.

The Violence in Families questionnaire was regarded as a useful tool and could thus be implemented in practice. However, it is important to offer education to the nurses prior to implementing a routine of asking about intimate partner violence in the child healthcare setting.