Domestic and family violence knowledge and skills: A private mental health service survey of nurses, allied health, and medical clinicians

Abstract

Mental healthcare services have an important role to play in recognizing and responding to domestic and family violence (DFV). This study aimed to evaluate staff knowledge, confidence, and clinical skills in family violence in an Australian private mental healthcare service. The methodology utilized was a cross‐sectional, online survey of clinical staff. In total, 93 clinical staff participated (51 nursing, 37 allied health, and 5 medical), with a 29% response rate. Most clinicians reported working with patients who had disclosed experiencing family violence, but the majority of clinicians (63%) had received no training in the area, with nurses reporting the lowest training levels. Less than 20% reported definitive knowledge of important clinical skills including key family violence indicators, asking about family violence, and responding to disclosures. However, qualitative text response data indicated that many clinicians would provide responses that encompassed best‐practice recommendations. Overall, the results indicated suboptimal clinician family violence knowledge, with further training needed, particularly in nursing staff. Stronger knowledge and skills in social workers and psychologists, relative to nurses, paralleled existing research in a medical hospital sample. The data from the study will be utilized to inform the implementation of a hospital‐wide quality and service improvement project in the area of DFV clinical response.

Multifaceted training and readiness to respond to family violence: A prospective cohort evaluation

“…This tool has been found to be reliable (Cronbach's alpha-0.77; Fisher et al, 2022;Cronbach's alpha-0.83;Withiel, Gill & Fisher 2021) and has been previously implemented across a range of clinical areas (Fisher et al, 2022;Fisher et al, 2021;Withiel et al, 2020).…”

“…This 11‐item mixed‐method questionnaire implements a combination of Likert‐type, forced choice (‘Yes, No, Somewhat’) and free text responding to explore changes in clinician readiness to respond to family violence. This tool has been found to be reliable (Cronbach's alpha—0.77; Fisher et al, 2022; Cronbach's alpha—0.83; Withiel, Gill & Fisher 2021) and has been previously implemented across a range of clinical areas (Fisher et al, 2022; Fisher et al, 2021; Withiel et al, 2020). Moreover, a preserved capability to differentiate between professions with higher levels of family violence training (Fisher, Rudkin et al, 2020), further demonstrates its sensitivity to detect change in knowledge following training exposure.…”

Evaluating the impact of a family violence transformational change project in a major trauma hospital: A three-year follow-up comparison study of knowledge, confidence, and family violence response skills in clinical staff

“…It also surveys clinician endorsed barriers to addressing DFV. The survey consists of Likert-type ordinal responses, forced choice categorical responses (Yes, No, Somewhat) and qualitative free-text response sections (please see (21) Designed for the Victorian context, this survey has been used in three previous studies (with combined clinician participants of N = 754) (20,21,30). It has good internal consistency, as indicated in previous studies (Withiel et al, 2021, Cronbach's Alpha −0.83; Fisher et al, 2022, Cronbach's alpha of 0.77).…”

“…Self-report of prior family violence training was also modified to indicate the specific type(s) of Royal Melbourne Hospital training respondents had attended since the initiative commenced. Finally, a question asking clinicians to estimate their total number of family violence training hours was added (23,30).…”