Health-Related Violence Personal Statement

Domestic violence is an epidemic and the number one health concern in our country. There are more abusers and their victims compared to past years. As a pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship, domestic violence is used by one person to gain or maintain power and control over another one. It can be physical, sexual, emotional, and economic abuse and not look the same in every relationship because every relationship is different. This kind of abuse affects people of all ages and sexes, socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds, education and employment levels. Abuse towards children and the elderly can be violent or aggressive behavior. Thus, there are many types of abuse that one can suffer; awareness of the signs of domestic violence is especially important before getting into any kind of intimate relationship.

Excellent discussion on workplace violence in the health care setting. When this writer finished nursing school approximately nine years ago, the thought of being assaulted or abused by the patient or family member did not cross this writer mind. Most people think of nurses as being the most nurturing, caring indivdiual, whom assist the patient with restoring their health. Society has shifted in a direction within the current health care industry and there is not a level of respect being demonstrated towards the health care professional. This can create a barrier with building a therapeutic and effective nurse to patient relationship. When this wall has been established due to workplace violence resulting from the patient and family,

Domestic violence is a serious issue that cannot be ignored. In the situation given the patient’s safety, privacy, and autonomy must be taken into consideration when deciding on a course of action. As a medical student, training to become a health care professional, the patient would be my priority.

There are millions of examples of children who not only witness intimate partner violence (IPV) but also has been victimized. ( Christoff, Murrell & Henning, 2007) Children exposed to these kinds of violent behavior at such a young age also show signs of these behaviors, many violent, as adults. Evidence shows that witnessing violent behavior as a child correlates to patterns of abuse into adulthood as well. (Murrell et al., 2007) Over the years there has been a growing recognition that young people who witness IPV is has much of the same impact as a child victimized of abuse. This often damages their long term social and emotional well-being. Having a safe place outside of the home along with a supportive

The first few years on a relationship, everything seems gold plated and perfect. Respecting, honoring significant others is a given, but unfortunately some feel the urge and need to claim their dominance over the relationship. Unexpected things would eventually start occurring, like physical assaults, diminished self-worth, and sometimes even child abuses are consequences of trying to dominate the members in a household. After growing up in a household where the abusive environment is dominating, people are known to develop trust issues, disturbed and unreal perceptions of reality; the solution may not always be clear, but immediate action is to be taken from the abused party or victims.

An individual who is responsible for subjecting their intimate partner to domestic violence is often controlling, manipulative, aggressive, violent, and dangerous. It is important for an individual who is experiencing any form of abuse should contact authorities to prevent any further abuse in the relationship. While the victim of domestic violence is constructing a plan for a safe escape, the victim will choose a domestic violence attorney. A domestic violence attorney is a lawyer who specializes in family law.

This is relevant for me as it is for everyone in the healthcare industry. We all want to work in an environment that is free from violence especially in an environment that is already full of stress. It is good to know that there are governmental sanctions for those that violate harassment or violence regulations in the workplace. We still need management to be accountable with those under their direction, disciplining and counseling problem employees as necessary. Because of this threat that constantly hangs over our heads we as nurses should develop a process or plan

There are people who have been abused that are not healthy enough to do anything or they do not have the funds to take care of themselves. Domestic violence costs more than $37 billion a year in law enforcement involvement, legal work, medical and mental health treatment, and lost productivity at companies (Safe Horizon). This shows that in order to get help, victims spend all of their money on trying to get the right paperwork just to get away from the abusers. They do not have the funds to get away, much less stay healthy and treat themselves if they get sick. “Along with getting sick, the victims also have to pay for the injuries that have been inflicted on them by their partner and only 34% of people who are injured by intimate partners receive medical care for their injuries” (National Coalition Against Domestic Violence). By adding medical groups paid for by the government and by people volunteering to help, they can help keep those who have been abused

For domestic violence, medical providers can be as much of a first responder as law enforcement or emergency medical services. The medical provider who is going to note that the victim has been seen several times for the same injury. One of medical providers’ core functions is to investigate the well-being of the patients. If a patient presents with multiple concussions in a year without a good explanation of the circumstances that caused the concussion, this would raise the red-flags for the provider. Additionally, with new governmental regulations providing incentives for providers to transition care to another provider, the whole medical record for a patient can now be in the hands of the provider. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016) At Santa Clara County Health and Hospital System, the primary care provider will receive documentation of all their patients who are admitted or seen in the emergency room. Information sharing about patients will only increase with time. If a patient is seen on one side of the country in the emergency room for a concussion, their primary care provider on the west coast can receive a report of this concussion. The awareness can be a matter of life or death for a patient.

Unfortunately violence and abuse are very common in the United States. They can be expressed in many ways such as physical, emotional, mental, sexual, financial, and even spiritual abuse. The victim can suffer major health and mental problems caused by the mistreatment. Not only does it affect those involved, but also those who witness the violence. It is a very difficult cycle to break, as the abuser tends to continuously abuse the victim, even when they claim that they have changed and will stop.

“Future without Violence is working with three Patient Centered Medical Home-Certified Health Centers and domestic violence programs on a pilot project to improve the health outcomes for women through the identification and response to intimate partner violence IPV”(futureswithoutviolence.org ). Health care leaders are working hard to combat many aspect of IPV. Because most perpetrators are victims themselves, it is not that easy to tell if some of them actually know if this is an acceptable behavior. What someone think is right may be wrong for the other person. The National Health Care Workforce Commission, should liaison with the (IOM), Health Resources including the state nursing workforce centers; American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN); AANP (Nurse Practitioners); and the Department of Health and Human Services coupled with the Law enforcement to help bring about changes to IVP. These changes are critical to the health and well-being of all victims throughout the country. The populations in society who are at greatest risk to IVP are vulnerable; sometimes they are too scared to report the issues. Let us all collaborate to develop tools to more thoroughly collect information on how defeat Intimate Partner

The mention of the subject of bullying arouses various scenarios of young middle school or high school children hitting and taking advantage of one another. Due to this mentality, we have believed that the act of bullying is one the ends in childhood. However, it is sad that this act has progressed into adulthood and penetrated into the nursing profession. I am in the Blue team, thus the problem this paper is going to address is,“Horizontal Violence among new graduate nurses.” Horizontal violence is simply the act of bullying and abuse among nurses that occurs in every level of clinical practice, research and education (Egues & Leaning, 2013).

As a healthcare worker it is our responsibility to learn how to identify the signs and symptoms of abuse and to take action to help the abused patient. Abuse is present in all cultures, in every social class, and in all ethnic groups. For physical abuse the patient may have current or past visible external signs of damage to parts of the body such as bruising and abrasions. Physical abuse can cause chronic pain and may affect the patient's immediate and future ability to perform activities of daily living. For emotional abuse the patient may lose hope in the future and resort to unhealthy behaviors, such as drug abuse, crime, and abusing others, in an attempt to gain control.

Violence in all its forms has increased dramatically worldwide in recent decades (Balamurugan, Jose & Nandakumar, 2012). According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) report, nearly two million American workers report having been victims of workplace violence each year (2011). Among those at highest risks for violence in the healthcare setting are nurses, social workers and psychiatric evaluators (OSHA, 2011). In the healthcare setting, physical assault is almost exclusively committed by patients (Balamurugan et al., 2012). Moreover, nurses have the highest rate of violent attacks out of all healthcare workers (Howerton Child & Mentes, 2010); the main reason being that nurses are alongside the patients 24-hours a day, are usually the most available caretakers and are the frontline staff members dealing with patients and their relatives whereas psychiatrists, social workers and other healthcare providers only visit from time to time (Yarovitsky & Tabak, 2009; Rowe, 2012; ALBashtaway, 2013).

I believe this introductory seminar is very relevant to this cross cultural healthcare class because different cultures may have different opinions on violence. In some cases, your patient