Knowledge Translation Plan to Diffuse, Disseminate and Apply Evidence on Children Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence

Abstract

Background: A consistent body of evidence shows that childhood exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) represents a major risk factor for the development of a wide range of short- and long-term adjustment problems that span virtually all spheres of functioning. Although knowledge translation (KT) has the potential to improve the value of research evidence by making it available to professionals who can use them to promote the health of children exposed to IPV such as nurses, KT of research findings concerning this population has received very little attention in the literature.Aim: The purpose of the present paper is to propose a comprehensive end-of-grant KT plan to diffuse and disseminate clinically relevant research evidence on children who have been exposed to IPV to selected knowledge users. In the KT plan, we emphasize the key role that nurse practitioners play as relevant knowledge users and in the implementation of some of the proposed KT strategies.Methods: A systematic literature review was performed to identify research on children and adolescents exposed to IPV upon which we built an evidence-based KT plan targeting a variety of relevant audiences. In designing the KT plan, we adopted the definition of end-of-grant KT developed by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), which includes a wide range of activities targeting different audiences and involving a variety of health professionals, including nurses.Conclusions: Given the high prevalence of childhood exposure to IPV worldwide and the associated adjustment problems children experience, the development of KT strategies to transfer clinically relevant information on this population to relevant knowledge users should be deemed a priority in the professional practice of nurses worldwide.