Interprofessional Education for Domestic Violence Safety Planning in Nursing and Social Work: A Scoping Review.

RATIONALE

Nurses and social workers in healthcare settings are positioned to identify abuse and contribute to improving the wellbeing of victims and their family members by screening for, providing safety education about, and reporting abuse when required by law.

OBJECTIVE

The review aims to assess the current state of the simulation education for addressing the needs of domestic violence (DV) survivors to screen, assess, and intervene in DV cases in healthcare settings.

METHOD

A scoping review to map the peer-reviewed evidence on interprofessional education (IPE) was conducted by means of automated database search for nursing and social work students. The methodology was informed by Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews.

RESULTS

Categories identified across the included articles were grouped according to the 1) methods of instruction and student assessment; 4) benefits of conducting DV-focused IPE; and 2) challenges of conducting DV-focused IPE.

CONCLUSIONS

These results have assessed what is known about educating social work professionals to collaborate across disciplines and highlight the need for IPE opportunities to enhance student knowledge of best practices in relation to the screening, assessment, and management of DV in healthcare settings.