GPs' perceived readiness to identify and respond to intimate partner abuse: development and preliminary validation of a multidimensional scale

Abstract

Objectives: To develop a scale to assess the perceived readiness of general practitioners (GPs) to identify and respond to intimate partner abuse (IPA) and to examine its psychometric properties. Methods:A qualitative study of GPs' perceived readiness and a literature review were used to generate items for the General Practitioners' Perceived Readiness to identify and respond to Intimate Partner Abuse Scale (GRIPS). Responses of 287 Australian GPs and GP registrars were analysed to provide psychometric evaluation of the GRIPS.Results: Principal components analysis generated a three-factor scale comprising 30 items with good internal consistency, (Cronbach's alpha from 0.67 to 0.88). The three distinct and reliable subscales consisting of 7 to 13 items are: Self-Efficacy; Motivational Readiness; and Emotional Readiness. The subscales were closely correlated with relevant theoretical constructs and demonstrated a unique relationship with IPA training and clinical experience. Conclusion:The GRIPS, a new scale with face-, content-and construct-validity, as well as internal consistency reliability, was validated in the general practice context. Further validation is warranted. Implications for public health:The GRIPS is a well-defined and easily administered scale that can be used in research and training contexts to assess health practitioners' perceived self-efficacy, motivational and emotional readiness to identify and respond to IPA. This would facilitate IPA disclosure and identification.

A New Scale of Readiness for Health Care Students to Encounter Partner Abuse

“…The Self-efficacy subscale had a very strong correlation with overall readiness ( r = .918), and in the PCA it accounted for 31.55% of the variance of the scale. Similar results were found by the authors of the GRIPS (Leung et al, 2017a). Likewise, the Emotional-readiness subscale was also high ( r = .788, 11.47% of variance).…”

“…The authors of the more recently developed General practitioners’ Perceived Readiness to identify and respond to Intimate Partner abuse Scale (GRIPS; Leung et al, 2017a) noted that self-reporting knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors framework may not encompass aspects of readiness such as Emotional- and Motivational-readiness. The authors cited qualitative work with GPs which indicated that these aspects of readiness are central to a practitioner’s willingness to act on their suspicions of PA, and therefore critical to assess and measure when attempting to define the “readiness” of a person or workforce (Leung et al, 2017a).…”

Assisting patients experiencing family violence: A survey of training levels, perceived knowledge, and confidence of clinical staff in a large metropolitan hospital

“…There are studies with larger sample sizes of medical professionals, when they have been the sole study group in family violence knowledge studies. 30,33 However, these studies have been in GPs and psychiatrists, and not doctors from a range of specialities in a general medical hospital. A similar multi-disciplinary Australian study did not report on response rates of individual professions, but yielded an overall low response rate, and relatively low medical participant numbers ( N = 32, overall response rate of 6.7%).…”

“…32 Two other more recently published tools were not available at the time the study was conducted. 25,33 A short, targeted survey was considered more likely to attract respondents and lead to full completion of the questions. Several available resources were consulted including a recent survey conducted at RMH in Social Work and with emergency department doctors, 23 29 Feedback on the draft survey was sought from the RMH Allied Health Management and Senior Clinician team (N = 40), executive nursing staff and nurse unit managers (N = 39), and the SHRFV Steering Committee, which includes medical staff, partner site representatives, and health consumers (N = 16).…”

Are We Asking Too Much of the Health Sector? Exploring the Readiness of Brazilian Primary Healthcare to Respond to Domestic Violence Against Women

“…Analysis of healthcare system readiness may also help understand why specific interventions may be effective in one context but not in others. 9 Readiness is not a new concept, but has been used in various healthcare contexts to refer to: (a) individual providers' ability to respond to a specific health issue 10 ; (b) service readiness to assess availability, performance and quality of VAW care offered 11 ; (c) organizational readiness to implement a particular innovation. 12 However, none of these tools offer a framework to assess systems' capacity and preparedness for adopting a new intervention.…”