physical, emotional
Violence does not discriminate against any social or economic position or situation. It can be physical, emotional or psychological and usually is inflicted by a close family member (Ford-Gilboe, 2016). Characteristics that trigger providers of violence taking place is patients arriving at the emergency room with a trauma that is not related to an illness, withdrawn behavior or changes that are not normal in their everyday mood, depression, and anxiety. Other behaviors that something is wrong, is observing self-harm, suicide comments, and anything from the person’s norm (Mayo Clinic, 2017).
Working in a Cardiac Unit, I have seen the abuse of a patient where the patient is abandoned or not cared for the way they should be. I see many patients where the family members (spouse, son or daughter), no longer want to be apart in their care. Once, I received a call from a daughter wanting to know if her mom has died yet. I had trouble responding because it was cold-hearted.
My facility’s procedure is to report these types of abuse as soon as possible. We wait for the right time when the patient is alone to approach them with another nurse and question them about the abuse signs or abandonment noted by family members. We also inform the Charge Nurse so a message can be sent to a Social Worker and Adult Protective Services can be notified. Most of the time, once APS is involved, we do not know the outcome of the investigation. The goal is to protect a victim of abuse of any age (Mayo Clinic, 2017).
Reference
Ford-Gilboe, M., Wathen, C. N., Varcoe, C., MacMillan, H. L., Scott-Storey, K., Mantler, T., Hegarty, K., & Perrin, N. (2016). Development of a brief measure of intimate partner violence experiences: the Composite Abuse Scale (Revised)-Short Form (CASR-SF). BMJ Open, 6(12), e012824. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2016-012824
