Sjuksköterskors erfarenheter av att fråga patienter om våld i nära relation

Sammanfattning: Aim: The aim of this study was to examine nurses experiences of asking patients aboutintimate partner violence and what the nurses believed could be of help or hindrance whenasking the question. Method: The study design was qualitative. Nine nurses from four different divisions wasinterviewed. The participants worked at a Swedish university hospital with an action plan fortaking care of violated women. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews usingan interview guide. The results were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Main result: The question about intimate partner violence raises a variety of feelings amongnurses, for example anger and empathy. When the question is asked, nurses describe bothaggravating and facilitative factors. Some of the nurses had experience of regularly askingpatients about violence, while others only ask of suspicion. Nurses enter both aggravating andfacilitators to ask the question of violence. These factors may be related to the nurse herself,such ignorance/knowledge on the topic intimate partner violence. Operational factors includelack of routine of asking the question, or that there are keywords for documentation ofviolence in the patient record. Examples of factors related to the patient may be the prejudicesthat some groups of patients are not exposed or that the nurse suspects that violence is presentin the patient. Conclusion: The nurses mentioned several different obstacles to asking the question aboutintimate partner violence, but also helping factors. Several of the interviewed nurses do notknow the hospital's action plan on taking care of abused women, which says that all patientsshould be asked about violence. This is likely to affect the extent to which the question isbeing asked by the nurses.