Development and Evaluation of an Elder Abuse Forensic Nurse Examiner e-Learning Curriculum

Abstract

In Ontario, Canada, there is a need for an easily accessible training for forensic nurse examiners on the provision of care for abused older adults. In this study, our objective was to develop and evaluate a novel elder abuse nurse examiner e-learning curriculum focused on improving the care provided to older adults. The curriculum was launched on an online learning management system to forensic nurses working across Ontario’s hospital-based violence treatment centers in June 2019 and evaluated using pre- and post-training questionnaires that measured self-assessed changes in knowledge and skills-based competence related to providing elder abuse care. There were significant improvements pre- to post-training in self-reported knowledge and competence across all core content domains: Older Adults and Abuse; Documentation, Legal, and Legislative Issues; Interview with Older Adult, Caregiver, and Other Relevant Contacts; Initial Assessment; Medical and Forensic Examination; and Case Summary, Discharge Plan, and Follow-Up Care. As the curriculum enhanced the knowledge and skills associated with caring for abused older adults, it may have implications for training forensic nurse examiners and associated staff working in more than 25 countries internationally.

Effectiveness of Nurses’ Training in Identifying, Reporting and Handling Elderly Abuse: A Systematic Literature Review

“…The authors clarified that education might give an incentive to document the incidence [ 5 , 21 ]. Along similar lines, other studies revealed that reporting on elder abuse increased after attending educational training that consisted of lectures, simulation lab, and debriefings [ 4 , 6 , 17 , 26 , 28 ]. Additionally, participants stated that after receiving the education they felt confident in reporting the cases of elder abuse [ 4 ].…”

“…As suggested by previous studies, there is a positive relationship between training and education for nurses in elder abuse, and reporting and reduction in cases [ 3 , 6 , 20 , 21 ]. On this note, there is evidence to suggest that participants who were victimized would prefer a specialized nurse in detecting and managing their case [ 22 ].…”

“…Some of the studies have used training modules and educational training strategies developed before and some have developed a new teaching module and evaluated its effectiveness. As per the critical appraisal in Section 2.3 , there were five randomized control trial studies [ 3 , 8 , 21 , 26 , 27 ], six quasi-experimental study, [ 1 , 4 , 6 , 16 , 17 , 28 ] and three Cross-Sectional studies [ 5 , 9 , 20 ]. All of them are listed in more detail in Table 3 below.…”

“…Moreover, Pickering et al [ 17 ] discussed that participants were able to confidently identify the incidence of elder abuse that needed to be reported and they were able to correctly answer the questions, which showed their competency in dealing with elder abuse effectively. Finally, Kosa et al [ 6 ] noted that nurse’s level of competency increased significantly from Mean 1.1 to Mean 3.8 post-training.…”

“…There are different forms of elder abuse such as physical, psychological, sexual, financial, and neglect [ 5 ]. According to Kosa et al [ 6 ], the prevalence rate of psychological abuse is the most common, while the least noticed form of abuse was sexual. Yon et al’s [ 7 ] systematic review indicated that the prevalence rate of psychological abuse was 11.6%, financial 6.8%, neglect at 4.2%, physical abuse at 2.6%, and sexual abuse 0.9%.…”