title: Nurses' attitudes and practices towards abused women.
abstract: The present article is a descriptive survey assessing nurses' knowledge, training, and practices regarding the care of abused women. A self-administered questionnaire was sent to all nurses working within the government health organization on the Aland Islands, Finland. The response rate was 57%. Most nurses had no formal training in domestic violence and were less likely than the in-service-trained nurses to intervene with abused women. Nurses' knowledge, beliefs, and practices were found to be unsystematic and had drawbacks. Nurses were not familiar with the formal structure provided by the health administration. The results suggest that in order to meet the urgent need for training among nurses, an in-service training program needs to be set up. This program would help the nurses in identifying survivors of abuse and make them prepared to intervene more effectively to promote the health of these women.
authors.affiliation: Nordic School of Public Health, Göteborg, Sweden. peterhof@aland.net
authors.forename: A M E
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Häggblom
authors.forename: L R-M
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Hallberg
authors.forename: Anders R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Möller
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D018585:Battered Women / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D024802:Nurse's Role; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital; D015995:Prevalence; D011336:Probability; D011361:Professional Competence; D018570:Risk Assessment; D013179:Spouse Abuse / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology