Citation

Takada M, Okanaga M, Asaka Y, Adachi K, Uemoto M, Shiraishi R, Usami Y. Bull. Kobe City Coll. Nurs. 2003; 7: 23-32.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2003, Kobe City College of Nursing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Purposes: To make it clear how much the nurses who work at single department hospitals or clinics aware of domestic violence (DV) and the actual conditions of their encounters with DV victims. Methodology: Investigation was implemented by sending the original questionnaires by mail to 446 nurses who work at the clinics or single department hospitals located in the three districts of the city K. The main contents of the questionnaires were regarding the details of violence, DV terminologies, and information source for the terminologies, knowledge of victims' behaviors, experience to encounter with the DV victims and how they deal with the situation. Examinations χ^2 and t were adopted for data analysis. Result: 1. 291 valid answers were collected from nurses, whose average age was 44.2. 87% of respondents were aware of the term, "Domestic Violence", by obtaining information from mass media. 2. Many respondents incorrectly regarded those activities such as "being showed pornographic magazines", "being restricted to associate with their parents' home or friends", "having their letters opened without permission", or "being ignored for a long period of time" as non-violence. Neither marriage status nor experience seemed to affect the answer. Nurses tended to recognize violent behaviors more correctly than ordinary women. 3. Ratios of correct answers were relatively low in several questions regarding characteristic behaviors of DV victims, such as whether victims themselves were partially responsible for DV. It was clear that lower percentage of correct answers attributed to nurses' lack of knowledge for right judgments. 4. Lecture classes or fundamental education regarding DV seemed not to reflect the recognition level or quality of cares for DV victims. 5. 38.5% of nurses have encountered with DV victims at the clinical scenes, and the percentage was especially high in the surgical department for outpatients or psychological department. 6. Nurses were more likely to judge patients as DV victims through complaints made by victims rather than through clinical observation. 7. Although 37.1 % of nurses who encountered with victims have provided mental care, very few have offered useful information or contacted with other organizations. Conclusion: It is inevitable for nurses who work at single department hospitals or clinics to encounter DV victims from now on. However awareness of DV and quality of cares for victims are not sufficient enough. Nurturing nurses to provide appropriate support for the DV victims are the future challenges, for which sufficient time, reviewing education program and creating guidelines are urgently.