Monday, 17 September 2018
Advanced nurse practitioners providing one-time only urgent care services are positioned to emancipate victims of human trafficking. This integrated literature review will explore two evidence-based tools utilized in identification of trafficking victims, the Trafficking Identification Tool (TVIT) and the Medical Assessment Tool by the Polaris project. Practitioners will be informed on the issue of female adolescent human trafficking through this review and be able to incorporate screening within urgent care settings. Utilizing the Emancipatory Nurse Praxis, the complexities of human trafficking will be discussed and the advanced nurse practitioner will be guided through the necessary considerations prior to screening for trafficking in practice. A discussion of the complexities of trafficking will be introduced and the tools necessary for implementation of screening within practice discussed. Since trafficking is clandestine in nature and recent tools have been validated for use, the recommendations for future research will be discussed as validated tools for use by medical professionals are lengthy and may not apply to urgent care or rapid one time patient care encounters. Currently research is emerging exploring how victims are being identified within the United States, so this timely review of literature aims to encourage screening for victims within health care encounters and calls for future modification of screening tools for use within urgent care encounters. The advanced nurse practitioner in urgent care is positioned to create great societal and personal impact as this currently form of slavery is brought into societal and practitioner view. Shining a light on trafficking within the U.S. borders and the globe aims to move the health care professional through informed change within individual and organizational practice and calls for an interdisciplinary approach to the care of victims once identified. As victims have experienced a great loss of basic dignities, the practitioner is further cautioned for informed screening and trauma informed care delivery to victims as those emancipated are at great risk for harm and future victimization.