Background - Domestic violence in India is commonly experienced by married women. Nursing in this country is a women dominated profession and they too are victims of domestic violence. Scarcity of opportunity to seek therapy leads to poor performance in these nurses and hence if the study verifies effectiveness family counseling at the work place this will be beneficial to the employee and employer.
Family and extended Family plays a significant role in Indian culture, hence the Family counseling module was considered relevant.
Design:- Cross- sectional correlation survey
Method :- An explorative descriptive research approach was used.
Tool:- A questionnaire with a checklist developed by Manivannan (2010) was used with a self reporting technique
Population: - The population of this study consisted all the married nurses who were subjected to domestic violence.
Sample:- Nurses who were married and subject to domestic violence and willing to undergo family counseling
Sample size:- 459 nurses of the sample who were willing to go through family counseling
Sampling technique:- Non- probability, purposive sampling technique was used.
An Non Governmental Organization identified the existence of 884 Nurses who were victims of domestic violence in 44 Hospital located in Three Indian Cities. These nurses were offered family counseling and 459 nurses agreed to go through the process. The Therapy was initiated in February 2014 and lasted till April 2015. After the termination of the therapy an item scale developed by Manivannan (2010) was used to measure self perception of ability to nurse.
Results:- The sample of 459 nurses (100%) worked full time and were married during the study. The sample was divided into three groups 34years or under (33.3%) 35-44 years (29.4%) and 45 years or older (37.3%) The largest group had 0-4 years of employment history (46.2%). The structural analyses of the data obtained indicated Husband as a family member attending family counseling were positively related to a higher self perception (49%). Negative Perceptions of variability in the relationship with other family members were negatively related to trust and negativity in the work place. The obtained Welch co-relation, p is 0.47 at 0.87 level of significance which is more than p<0.05. Hence it is established that there is no co-relation between Nurses perceived improved decision making ability at work and mother in law as a family attending the counseling. The Self perception module by Manivannan (2010) is based on the self perception theory (SPT) developed by psychologist Daryl Bern and is based on Attitude determines behavior. The nurses demonstrated a positive escalation of Promptness in action, alertness when performing an action, quickness in decisions and speed in performance. When rated on a scale 1 – to – 5, where 1 is poor ability and 5 is excellent ability a mean range of 4 – 5 was seen in most of the nurses (83%).
The obtained Welch co-relation, p is 0.39 at 0.71 level of significance which is more than p<0.05. Hence it is established that there is no co-relation between Nurses age and perceived notion.
The nurses also demonstrated a negative escalation in feelings of generosity, positivity and empathy. When rated on a scale 1 – to – 5, where 1 is poor ability and 5 is excellent ability a mean range of 3 – 4 was obtained in most of the nurses (58%).
Conclusion:- Domestic violence in women needs to be assisted and in India a culturally male dominated society more so. Women when targeted need assistance if they are willing to seek the same. Nursing a very demanding profession and also a women centric one in India may need Nurse leaders to take a bold step to achieve better patient outcomes as perceived by the nurse and demonstrated in this study. The concept of Family counseling which involves the key family members have a significant value since the concept of family as a social body is considered important.
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