An Exploration of Emergency Healthcare Provision When Intimate Partner Abuse Is Identified.
Shannon Dhollande, Silke Meyer, Diksha Sapkota and 2 others
PMID 41699914WHAT IT FOUND
Emergency staff often miss intimate partner abuse when it presents as anxiety or depression.
Screening, training and referral gaps mean patients may receive mental health treatment without help for the abuse itself.
Key findings
01The review identified three dominant themes: DFV identification, DFV education, and medicalisation of victim-survivors' experiences.
02Emergency professionals often do not systematically screen for DFV, and emotional or psychological indicators are harder to recognise than physical signs.
03Only around one-third of clinicians had received DFV training, and it was often brief, lasting 1 to 3 hours.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
This is a narrative exploration, not a systematic review, and it does not claim to be exhaustive. The authors did not use study quality as an exclusion criterion, so weak studies could have shaped the themes. No included-study count is reported, so the breadth of the evidence is unclear. The paper does not test whether any ED screening, training or referral approach improves patient safety or mental health outcomes. Much of the evidence is about professionals' perceptions and practice, not about victim-survivors' outcomes.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that routine DFV screening or mental health treatment alone will keep victim-survivors safe. The review reports gaps in screening, training and psychosocial referral, and that mental health diagnoses can hide ongoing abuse risk.