In Response to: Intimate partner violence
Dear Editor,
Congratulations to Lisa DiBlasi Moorehead for highlighting the hidden issue of intimate partner violence (IPV) in your August 8 edition. We agree with her call for patients to be offered greater support. But healthcare organizations should also recognize that this is a problem that impacts their staff as well.
Data on this has been available for years, but it needs more attention. In a 2010 U.S. study, 45% of healthcare workers (a large majority, women) reported that they had been the victims of domestic violence; and almost half of fatalities of private healthcare workers in hospitals were domestic violence related, according to 2018 figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics; in the U.K. a nursing charity report in 2016 estimated that nurses, midwifes, and healthcare assistants were three times more likely to be survivors of domestic abuse than the population average.
It should come as no surprise that nurses are disproportionately affected by domestic abuse. People working in caring professions are predisposed to put their own wellbeing second, and that increases their risk of being mistreated. Resilience and selflessness are valued, but in the wrong situations and relationships, these are characteristics that make “perfect victims.”
Domestic violence often spills over into workplace settings, increasing the risk of harm to colleagues and patients. So, addressing this hidden epidemic should be a greater priority – opening up conversations to improve awareness, making it easier for staff to report domestic violence, having a plan for staff who do ask for help, and introducing new technologies and strategies that make it easier to access support. We are working with healthcare leaders to support this process.
– Kimberly Urbanek, System Manager, Public Safety, Edward-Elmhurst Health, and Sienna Kozin, WPV Lead, CriticalArc
