Looking Beyond the Question ‘Do You Feel Safe at Home?': What Healthcare Providers Need to Know to Identify, Support, and Appropriately Refer Female Victims of Intimate Partner Violence
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Abstract
The purpose of this practice improvement project was to educate healthcare providers about Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). The World Health Organization (WHO) (2014) created a clinical handbook for healthcare providers. This handbook has guidelines on how to address IPV in a healthcare setting (World Health Organization, 2014). WHO used the guidelines to create educational seminars for healthcare providers. This practice improvement project uses Pender’s Health Promotion Model as a theoretical framework. The practice improvement project also uses the Iowa Model as a guide for design and implementation. The author held five educational seminars to educate 42 healthcare providers on the WHO’s clinical guidelines. The author also provided an informational booth at a primary care conference with information about the guidelines listed above. The author created and distributed resource pamphlets to both educational seminar and conference attendees. The attendees of the educational seminars demonstrated knowledge acquisition as a result of the educational seminar. This was determined through pre and posttests that were administered before and after each of the educational seminars, respectively. Knowledgeable healthcare providers are able to identify, support and refer victims of IPV to the appropriate care that they need. Also, as a result of the educational seminars, there was a behavioral change from how healthcare providers were currently practicing to how they intend to practice in the future. This intent to change practice could result in more case findings and referrals for victims of IPV.