Domestic violence education in family practice residencies.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

This study evaluated the extent of domestic violence (DV) education in US family practice residency programs and compared the results to those of a prior study of the same topic.

METHODS

We mailed a four-page survey to the directors of all US family practice residency programs. The survey asked the extent to which the topic of DV in particular and other areas of violence in general are included in the curriculum.

RESULTS

Surveys were returned from 298 (65.9%) programs, of which 69.4% of respondents indicated that the extent to which violence education is a formal part of their curriculum is either somewhat or a great deal, and 79.9% responded similarly about DV education specifically. On average, programs provide 4-5 hours of training each year, mostly through didactic lectures. Compared to a previous study, our findings demonstrate an increase in violence education in these programs.

CONCLUSION

Our findings demonstrate that family medicine educators have increased the amount of residency curricular time devoted to training on DV.