Nursing and Medical Staff Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Related to Intimate Partner Violence Against Women in Emergency Departments: A Cross-Sectional Survey in Southeast Spain

INTRODUCTION: Health care professionals show limited competencies regarding intimate partner violence against women, which influences their approach. Professional category seems to be a predictor of detection practices. This study aimed to evaluate the knowledge, preparedness, opinions, and detection practices regarding intimate partner violence against women among health care professionals in hospital emergency departments (n = 178) according to professional category. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional multicenter study using a reduced Spanish version of the Physician Readiness to Manage Intimate Partner Violence Survey questionnaire among emergency nurses and physicians of urban hospital emergency services in the city of Granada, in southern Spain. Binary and multivariate logistic regression models were designed to quantify the magnitude of association between variables and case detection. RESULTS: Notably, 77% of participants indicated that they had not received previous training in intimate partner violence against women, 26% did not ask questions to identify the abuse, and 65% did not detect any cases in the last 6 months, especially nurses (P = .003). Being an emergency physician (adjusted odds ratio, 2.60; 95% CI, 1.01-5.66), with previous training in gender-based violence (adjusted odds ratio, 4.88; 95% CI, 1.67-14.25) and feeling familiar with the center's policies (adjusted odds ratio, 3.22; 95% CI, 1.30-8.00), was associated with the practice of detecting victims in hospital emergency departments. DISCUSSION: The low level of preparedness of emergency department health care professionals to identify and respond to intimate partner violence against women is worrying. The findings emphasize the need to evaluate the training programs being offered and the dissemination and monitoring of the protocols in force and to implement standardized detection tools and reinforce the development of emergency nurses' skills and responsibilities.