Off-campus South Dakota State University users: To download campus access theses, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your South Dakota State University ID and password.

Non-South Dakota State University users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this thesis through interlibrary loan.

Document Type

Thesis - University Access Only

Award Date

1994

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department / School

Graduate Nursing

First Advisor

Margaret Hegge

Keywords

identification of abused women, nurse and patient

Abstract

A study of Registered Nurses, in Northwest Iowa rural hospitals was conducted to identify knowledge level of nurses regarding battered women. There was N= 229, or a 68.7% response rate, of usable questionnaires obtained. Factors analyzed were 1) a nurse's general knowledge level of battered women, 2) nurse's perception of capability of identifying a battered woman, 3) a nurse's perception of capability of intervening with a battered woman, 4) the relationship between knowledge of myths, assessment, intervention, and general knowledge of battered women related to perceived ability to identify and perceived ability to intervene, 5) the number of years in nursing and the nurses age related to perceived ability to identify and perceived ability to intervene, 6) the most important information nurses identified a need to know regarding battered women, 7) the number of battered women identified by nurses related to perceived ability to identify and perceived ability to intervene, and 8) the number of battered women identified by nurses related to the mean scores' regarding myths, assessment, intervention, and general knowledge of battered women.
Statistical analysis demonstrated that nurses as a whole were low in their awareness of battered women with a mean score on the questionnaire of 57.7%. There was no significant relationship between a nurses age or years in nursing and perceived ability to identify a battered woman or intervene with a battered woman. The areas most frequently identified by nurses as important to know about battered women were in the assessment and intervention categories. There was a significant relationship between the mean scores on myths, assessment, intervention, and knowledge of battered women and perceived capability to intervene. There was also significance found between mean scores on assessment and intervention questions and perceived ability to identify. Significance was found between the number of battered women identified and the mean scores of myths, assessment, intervention, and knowledge, and the number of battered women identified and the perceived capability to identify battered women, and intervene with battered women. This study then showed that a nurse's perceived ability to identify and intervene will increase, and the number of battered women identified by nurses will increase with education on battered women for nurses.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Abused women -- Identification
Nurse and patient

Format

application/pdf

Number of Pages

88

Publisher

South Dakota State University

Rights

Copyright © 1994 Barbara Condon. All rights reserved

Download

Share

COinS