Purpose: CDC's 2-year evaluation of this comprehensive program was designed to assess the health care providers' training and subsequent behavior concerning victims of intimate partner violence (IPV). The WomanKind program strives to educate and motivate health care providers to identify, document and refer victims of IPV to WomanKind's in-house, around-the-clock services.
Methods: Data were collected three times over a 2-year period at 3 intervention and 2 comparison hospitals located in Minneapolis, MN to assess the providers' knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors (KABB) concerning identification and referral of victims of IPV. Chart reviews were conducted and client referrals assessed.
Results: Health care providers at WomanKind hospitals demonstrated significantly higher knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors (KABB) than those at comparison hospitals throughout the study. During the data collection period, 1719 IPV victims were identified and referred to the WomanKind program, while only 27 IPV victims were referred to trained social workers at the comparison hospitals. Chart review results indicated that emergency staff at the intervention sites provide documentation of IPV in patient records twice as frequently as emergency staff at the comparison sites.
Conclusion: This study underscores the efficacy of a well-structured, multi-disciplinary effort in the delivery of services to IPV victims. The results provide strong evidence that specialized training, combined with on-site client services, has a significant positive impact on the KABB of health care providers.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant will be able to: 1. Describe the study design of this CDC evaluation research project. 2. Identify the seven conceptual domains or scales in the 51-item KABB surveys used to assess the impact of the specialized health provider training evaluated in the research project. 3. Articulate the significant differences KABB scores for the health care providers at each of the experimental (WomanKind) hospitals. 4. Discuss the differences in numbers of victims identified and referred in the experimental (WomanKind) hospitals in contrast to the comparison hospitals. 5. Assess the effects of institutionalization of the WomanKind program as demonstrated by the evaluation findings
Keywords: Evaluation, Domestic Violence
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Division of Violence Prevention
National Center for Injury Prevention
Atlanta, GA
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.