A nurse manager in the emergency department (ED) wants to ensure that the staff conducts thorough and consistent screens for intimate partner violence (IPV) on every woman but is concerned about privacy

Question

The best intervention by the manager would be to formulate a policy that a. all female patients must be assessed by the nurse before having others present.
b. creates a "survey" with a check-off box indicating the patient needs help with IPV.
c. each patient, male or female, is given a short questionnaire to complete on IPV.
d. allows only the patient into the ED until the nurse has done a complete assessment.

Answer 1

D
A policy of admitting only the patient into the ED until the nurse is able to complete a physical assessment and screen for IPV would be most likely to be beneficial and not arouse the suspicion of the batterer. Privacy is of the utmost importance during this time.
A policy that pertained only to women would likely make a batterer suspicious, and he and the patient might resist its implementation.
Unless the survey was completed in privacy, the woman would not feel safe answering it honestly.
Assessing both male and female patients is a good idea because anyone can be the victim of IPV, but filling out a questionnaire in the presence of the batterer would not be safe.