Enhancing Emergency Nurses Forensic Care for Interpersonal Violence Survivors: A Mixed Methods Study

Survivors of interpersonal violence have specific, unique, and complex psychosocial and forensic needs, yet nurses often lack adequate training in providing comprehensive care to this vulnerable population.

This study aims to explore emergency department nurses' experience caring for survivors of interpersonal violence to revise an interpersonal violence training module and then evaluate nurses' knowledge of pretraining and posttraining implementation.

This two-phase mixed-methods study was conducted with nurses from 4 emergency departments in a U.S.-Mexico border region from February to May 2023. Phase one comprised semi-structured interviews with emergency department nurses about their experiences caring for interpersonal violence survivors. Phase two integrated this feedback with sexual assault nurse examiner best practices to revise the forensic evidence collection training program. Nurses' knowledge was then assessed pretraining and posttraining.

Six experienced nurses completed interviews, identifying key themes in survivor care. Subsequently, 65 nurses participated in the revised training program across two cohorts. Knowledge scores improved significantly in both groups: Cohort 1 increased from 39.6% to 80.0% (SD = 13.87), and Cohort 2 from 49.5% to 82.1% (SD = 16.47).

Integrating nurse feedback into forensic evidence collection training significantly improved participant knowledge of interpersonal violence survivor care and evidence collection practices.