Florida physician and nurse education and practice related to domestic violence

Abstract

T he high incidence of the crime of woman battering translates into a public health epidemic. There are battered women in every medical practice, clinic, emergency room, and hospital. Some are recognized, most are not.’ One response by the health professions’ leadership is to encourage formal education on domestic violence for students and continuing education for practitioners. T g 2P3 he oals of the education are to increase awareness of battered women as patients, to provide specific techniques that facilitate identification of such patients, and to identify procedures that result in immediate support and referral to local community resources. One assumption is that this knowledge will modify the learner’s clinical behaviors to the benefit of the battered woman. In this article, we present survey data about the domestic violence education of physicians and nurses practicing in Florida and their use of that education in clinical settings. The findings include practitioner interest in learning more about domestic violence and a disparity of relevant education in clinical practice.