Toward a nursing definition of child maltreatment using seriousness vignettes

To determine whether nurses operationally define child maltreatment in a like manner regardless of their practice specialty, eight practice groups (N = 596) participated in a mail survey. The survey allowed nurses to judge the potential seriousness of child maltreatment incidents. Multivariate statistical analyses revealed significant group differences. Follow-up analyses of variance (ANOVAs) revealed a difference between anesthetists and community health nurses on one factor (parental sexual mores). However, an investigator-developed scale demonstrated the differences would lack substantive value in clinical practice. It was concluded that nursing specialty groups define similarly the seriousness of child abuse and neglect despite varied backgrounds.