Original Paper From Page 30: Knowledge of Health Care Providers in Managing Victims of Intimate Partner Violence by Sadaf Naveed and Saima Hamid 

KNOWLEDGE OF HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS IN MANAGING VICTIMS OF INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE

Sadaf Naveed¹ and Saima Hamid²

¹Student of Public Health, Health services academy Islamabad, Pakistan.

²Associate Professor, Health Services Academy, Islamabad, Pakistan.

ABSTRACT

Objective: To assess the knowledge of the health care providers in the management of intimate partner violence victims as they can play a significant role in screening and identification of intimate partner victims.

Design: A descriptive study

Setting: A study was undertaken in a tertiary care facility to access the knowledge of health care providers regarding provision of care to the intimate partner victims (IPVs).

Materials and Method: A descriptive study was conducted. Data was collected using self-administered questionnaire. The sample consisted of 70 health care professionals (head of departments, medical officers and nurses) working in medical, surgical, gynecology, burns center, emergency and psychiatry wards (n=70). The questionnaire response rate was 85.7% (medical officers=31, nurses=18, post-graduates=11, including 4 head of departments).

Results: The findings revealed that 71.6% health professionals had background knowledge of intimate partner violence, 98% had received no training during their professional lives, while 5% had knowledge about universal screening. Though majority of the health professionals were aware of the special needs of the victims, 88.3% respondents claimed that there was no policy for screening and managing abused women. Participants (63%) believed in legal documentation but no public display of posters or training program was being run by the hospital.

Conclusion: There were no policy guidelines non trainings undertaken for health care providers in the hospital to identify and manage the IPVs.

For the full text of this paper, please complete the form below so that the document can be sent to you.   Please note that if you are not a member of the IAHCP, you need to pay a fee to obtain the full text.  You can pay via online invoice with credit or debit card or you can pay via bank transfer.