Battered women: how can nurses help?

Research findings about the experience of 1,000 battered wives are presented in this paper. A total of 146 once-battered wives volunteered to be interviewed about their backgrounds, their victimization, and their use of personal strategies, informal help-sources, and formal help-sources to end the violence in their lives. As part of an article in Woman's Day magazine about this research, women who were currently or who had been previously battered were invited to respond to a questionnaire. The first 854 questionnaires returned in usable form were added to the interviews to create a 1,000-case national data base. An important finding of the study is that formal help-sources differ significantly in their effectiveness in providing service to battered women. The women in this study rated health care personnel as less effective than any other formal source of help. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of the research findings for nursing practice as they relate to the need for: a) awareness by the nurse of her or his own attitudes about battered women, b) understanding of the dynamics of battering, c) knowledge and skills for assessment of battering, and d) effective strategies for nursing intervention.