Taiwanese ER Nurses' Knowledge, Attitudes and Confidence of Nursing Interventions in Violence Against Women in Taiwan

Friday, 26 July 2013: 10:15 AM

Hsiu-Hung Wang, RN, PhD, FAAN1
Yung-Mei Yang, PhD, RN1
Fang-Hsin Lee, MSN, RN1
Shu-Chen Chang, MS, RN2
(1)College of Nursing, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
(2)Department of Nursing, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua, Taiwan

Learning Objective 1: The learners will be able to understand Taiwanese ER nurses’ knowledge, attitudes and confidence of nursing intervention in violence against women in Taiwan.

Learning Objective 2: The learners will be able to understand the needs of Taiwanese ER nurses when they encounter with female patients experiencing domestic violence.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to understand Taiwanese ER nurses’ knowledge, attitudes and confidence of nursing interventions in violence against women in Taiwan. 

Methods: The study adopted a cross-sectional design with self-developed questionnaires. 224 ER nurses from 7 hospitals in Taiwan including local hospitals, regional hospitals and medical centers were recruited for this study. Questionnaires regarding nurses’ knowledge, attitudes and confidence of nursing interventions in violence against women were used as the measuring tools. The face and content validity of three questionnaires were established by experts. The Cronbach’s α coefficient of three questionnaires were 0.81, 0.95 and 0.90 respectively. Each item of attitude scale (24 items) was scored on a 4-point Likert response from 1 to 4. The higher score indicates a higher level of positive attitudes of managing female patients experiencing domestic violence. Each item of confidence scale (15 items) was scored on a 5-point Likert response from 1 to 5. A higher score indicates a higher level of confidence of managing female patients experiencing domestic violence. The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of a Medical University Hospital, Taiwan.

Results: The correct response rate of participants’ knowledge of nursing interventions in violence against women was 65%. Participants’ attitude and confidence scale score of managing female patients experiencing domestic violence were 2.2 and 2.6. These indicated that Taiwanese ER nurses still lack of knowledge, attitudes and confidence of nursing interventions for women experiencing domestic violence. 

Conclusion: The results could provide government as references in making appropriate health policies of domestic violence intervention, enhance the nursing competencies of Taiwanese ER nurses to manage the violence against women in the medical settings, and improve the nursing quality for the violence against women in Taiwan. r women experiencing domestic violence.