A Qualitative Assessment of Interprofessional Knowledge Gaps in the Setting of Child Physical Abuse

Health care professionals can protect children by identifying and reporting injuries concerning for child physical abuse, such as sentinel injuries (bruising and intra-oral injuries in precruising infants). Citing knowledge and collaboration barriers, health care professionals sometimes fail to recognize sentinel injuries as concerning for abuse. Interprofessional education may be an ideal format to improve health care professional's responses to sentinel injuries. However, it is traditionally limited to health care professions, while responding to suspected child physical abuse requires collaboration between health care professionals and non-health care professionals. This study's purpose was to understand if an interprofessional education framework could support the need and development of interprofessional education for child physical abuse beyond health care professions.

Data were collected through semistructured interviews and analyzed using a qualitative descriptive methodology. Participants included 27 professionals who had engaged in child physical abuse responses in a US midwestern urban county. Participant professions included health care, child protective services, law enforcement, courts, victim advocates, and child advocacy center employees.

Six themes were identified: 4 themes aligned with competencies of the interprofessional education framework, 1 described engaging with families, and 1 described features unique to sentinel injury investigations.

This study supports the need for child physical abuse interprofessional education beyond health care professions. Legal thresholds for responding to suspected abuse differ by profession, and there is no shared interprofessional language around child physical abuse. This contributes to a steep learning curve for new professionals. This study also supports that an existing interprofessional education framework can provide the foundational framework for development of such education.