Public Health
Volume 124, Issue 8 , Pages 472-478, August 2010

A comparison of the training needs of maternity and sexual health professionals in a London teaching hospital with regards to routine enquiry for domestic abuse

  • C. Torres-Vitolas

      Affiliations

    • King’s College London, James Clerk Maxwell Building, 57 Waterloo Road, London SE1 8WA, UK
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author.
    • ,
  • L.J. Bacchus

      Affiliations

    • Gender, Violence and Health Centre, Department of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK
    • ,
  • G. Aston

      Affiliations

    • Florence Nightingale School of Nursing & Midwifery, King’s College London, London, UK

Received 28 July 2009; received in revised form 11 March 2010; accepted 13 April 2010. published online 21 July 2010.

Summary 

Objective

To identify maternity and sexual healthcare professionals’ training needs regarding routine enquiry for domestic abuse.

Study design

A cross-sectional survey, part of a theory-based evaluation of a routine enquiry for domestic abuse intervention in a South London teaching hospital.

Methods

Two hundred and twenty-eight maternity professionals (68% of staff) and 46 sexual health practitioners (45% of staff) attended a 1-day domestic abuse training session. Pre-training questionnaires were completed by 208 respondents (80% response rate). The questionnaire elicited information about previous training experiences, dealing with cases of abuse, general knowledge, attitudes towards victims of abuse and views on routine enquiry. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to identify differences according to healthcare setting, prior training, and practitioners’ demographic and experiential traits.

Results

Maternity and sexual health professionals reported positive attitudes towards women affected by abuse, but had limited domestic abuse training. Previously trained health professionals had good general knowledge, but failed to question attendees about abuse. Sexual health professionals were more likely to enquire about domestic abuse, and were more confident about implementing routine enquiry than maternity staff. Views on routine enquiry were influenced by health setting, demographic, attitudinal and experiential factors.

Conclusions

Domestic abuse training is necessary in maternity and sexual health services. Educational interventions for routine enquiry should include practice-enabling components in addition to awareness modules and pre-training assessment of individuals’ training needs to provide content that is tailored to their clinical practice and working environments. Institutional guidelines are recommended to enhance and sustain the positive effects of training.

Keywords: Domestic abuse, Routine enquiry, Training, Knowledge, Attitudes

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PII: S0033-3506(10)00120-4

doi:10.1016/j.puhe.2010.04.003

Public Health
Volume 124, Issue 8 , Pages 472-478, August 2010

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