The importance of nursing care for women victims of sexual violence in emergency units

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Sexual violence against women generates several problems, such as increased suicide rates, drug and alcohol abuse, incidence of health problems such as headaches and gastrointestinal disorders, in addition to all psychological suffering. According to the Brazilian Forum on Public Security, there were 66,020 rapes in the country in 2021. An increase of 4.2% of the cases, with 75.5% of the victims being vulnerable, unable to consent to the sexual act. 61.3% of the victims of sexual violence were under 13 years of age and in 79.6% of the cases the perpetrator was known to the victim. Harassment cases totaled 4,922, an increase of 2.3%, and sexual harassment was 19,209, an increase of 9% over the previous year. OBJECTIVE: To verify the importance of nursing care for women victims of sexual violence in emergency units. METHOD: This was an integrative literature review conducted between 2019 and 2023; the search was used in the database: Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature (LILACS), BDENF nursing (Brazil), Scientific Electronic Library Online (SCIELO). To identify the articles, the following descriptors were used: "sexual abuse", "sexual violence", "nursing" and "women". The inclusion criteria were articles that answered the guiding question of the research: What is the importance of nursing care for women victims of sexual violence in emergency units?; full articles, national articles and articles published in the last 05 years. RESULTS: A total of 19,713 articles were searched, and applying the criteria for inclusion, exclusion and duplicate articles, we were left with 18 articles for analysis and interpretation. Nursing care for women who are victims of sexual violence is, In general, it is adequate, with welcoming and humanized attitudes, and can be improved through intersectoral articulations aimed at prevention, treatment and adequate notification of cases. Among the nursing diagnoses, we listed: Fear; Impaired psychosocial integrity, feelings of powerlessness, anxiety, low self-esteem, and overload and stress. CONCLUSION: We conclude that sexual violence against women is a universal and strongly present problem in the country, with a very important part still invisible due to the high rates of underreporting. It was also noticed that the care of the nursing team, especially the nurses, is based on the competencies inherent to the training of these professionals.