Recognition of elder abuse by Italian nurses and nursing students: evaluation by the Caregiving Scenario Questionnaire

Abstract

Elder abuse appears to be widely underestimated by health professionals. We aimed to evaluate the recognition of elder abuse among Italian nurses and nursing students related to their professional, personal experiences and socio-demographic characteristics. 193 nursing students and 76 nurses attending a post-graduate nursing management master's degree at the University of Bologna (Italy) completed the Caregiving Scenario Questionnaire measuring the ability to recognize elder abuse. Data on age, gender, previous professional and personal experiences as well as nursing school teaching were collected. Regarding abusive items, preventing elder's movements by putting a table over the elder's lap was identified by almost all participants, while locking someone at home was identified by half of them. Neglect was recognized by 25 % of nurses and 20 % of students, respectively. The majority of nurses and students correctly identified non-abusive strategies. Reporting being taught on elder abuse was inversely associated with a good performance in detecting neglect. Italian nurses' and nursing students' uncertainty in identifying abusive strategies, especially neglect, was consistent with results of previous studies in other countries. Standardized education in healthcare core curriculum, reference guidance and training are strongly needed to improve elder abuse recognition in Italy.

Travesty of Life Elders Abuse an Inquiry of Physical and Psychological Abuse

“…However, the results are contrary to the findings suggested by Asti and Erdem (2006) that gender and economic status does not affect the degree of elder abuse. Moreover, the current study provides a fully developed scale useful for identifying the prevalence of elder abuse has endorsement by Pelotti et al (2013) stating that early detection of EA helps reducing the adverse impacts of it.…”

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

“…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.…”

“…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%. However, some studies stated that physical abuse was identified and reported more by healthcare professionals [ 8 , 9 ]. This could be explained by the fact that the characteristics of physical abuse, which include bruises, fractures, and swelling, are more likely to be noticed by healthcare providers than by other professionals.…”

Abuso de Idosos e o Papel dos Profissionais de Saúde

“…20 Todavia, apesar do tempo decorrido desde então, o abuso de idosos só mais recentemente viria a suscitar um interesse acrescido, nomeadamente pela circunstância de a população idosa vir aumentando exponencialmente a nível global, face ao aumento da esperança média de vida. [4][5][6][8][9]15,[21][22][23] A OMS estima uma duplicação da população mundial acima dos 60 anos de idade para 2050, em relação a 2015, passando dos 900 milhões (12,3% da população total) para os 2 biliões (21,5% da população). A determinação da prevalência atual do abuso de idosos tem-se revelado uma tarefa complexa, designadamente em virtude das variadas metodologias utilizadas 4,6,9,24 e das diferentes populações estudadas.…”

“…25 Diversos estudos indiciam tratar-se, efetivamente, de um problema comum. Ainda assim, muitos dos profissionais de saúde que trabalham com pessoas idosas afirmam nunca terem detetado um caso de abuso de idosos, 15,17 situação que suporta a tese defendida por alguns autores de que os casos reportados constituem somente a «ponta do icebergue» 6,15,24 e que mais de 80% dos casos de abuso de idosos nunca são denunciados ou reportados a nenhuma entidade, 6,18,26 apesar de se tratar de uma situação transversal a todas as classes socioeconómicas a nível mundial. Na mesma linha, a literatura revela que somente um em cada 24, [25][26][27] um em cada 14 28 ou um em cada cinco casos de abuso de idosos 29 são efetivamente denunciados.…”