Information on local shelters, domestic violence crisis lines, and her legal rights. However, the police may not always respond appropriately, so it is important for the nurse to inform the battered woman of her legal rights.
In recent years, some women’s rights advocates and criminal justice experts have debated mandatory reporting law on domestic violence (Walton-Moss and Campbell, 2002) Women’s rights advocates claim that mandatory domestic violence reporting laws discourage battered women from seeking treatment for their injuries because the women fear that health care providers will report their situation to the police and consequently place her in even greater danger with her abuser. Because some women are not ready to deal with the police, being forced to do this is nontherapeutic and disempowering and even increases their danger of abuse. If no mandatory reporting laws exist, then the nurse does not notify the police unless the woman confidentiality if the battered woman requests it, the deciding factor on reporting is the degree of danger that the woman face.
Nursing Interventions
Primary prevention for woman abuse begins with identifying families at risk and changing societal views toward wife abuse. Nurses need to educate clients on societal acceptance of violence against women as portrayed in films, television, magazines, and music. Nurses become more knowledgeable about factors such as poverty, drugs, access to guns, and unemployment, which increase the risk of domestic violence, and work with other members of the community to establish public policy and programs to address these issues.
Secondary prevention of woman battering involves early case finding and decisive prioritized intervention. Specific nursing interventions depend on the stage that the battered woman is in, because a woman in denial about the abuse requires a different strategy than one who is determined not to return to the relationship. In relationships where the abuse is just beginning and is mild, it is possible to work with the marital couple when both partners choose to do so. In these cases, the male accepts all responsibility for his abusive behavior of his partner and the counseling focuses on preventing further abuse. In many situations, an advanced practice nurse is the appropriate professional to work with the battered woman. Tertiary prevention is necessary when the woman has been repeated abused, as in the case of Nina. In such instances, the focus is on helping the abused woman to overcome the physical and psychologic effects of the abuse and to prevent future abuse. Because the abuser frequently threatens and harasses the woman when she attempts to leave, it is often difficult for her to follow through. Frequently, these women seek assistance from local shelters that provide safety and counseling. Nurses are often in the position to provide support and counseling to battered women in shelters. The nursing interventions identified in Table 22-1 relate to the case study describing Nina, who requires tertiary prevention measures is an emergency department setting.