Attain Qualitative Information From Advanced Nurse Practitioners

¶ … attain qualitative information from Advanced Nurse Practitioners (APNs) to ascertain best practices for treating women who have experienced Intimate Partner Violence (IPN)? Take Home Message: Yes, it is possible to attain best practices in such a way; these practices include the fact that APNs can create a significantly positive impact on victims of IPN and their families by providing a safe environment in which patients can address these issues, and by continually asking questions regarding their safety in these matters. Brykczynsnki, K.A., Crane, P., Medina, C.K., Pedraza, D. (2009).

Intimate stores of partner violence: Advanced practice nurses clinical stories of success and challenge. Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners. 23, 143-152. Search Strategy: The subsequent terms were input into MEDLINE database: domestic violence advanced nurse practitioners, health promotion, interpreting results. The articles were narrowed down according to their abstracts and titles. This article best suited the search terms entered and the present author's focus. Study Design: a qualitative study adhering to an interpretive phenomenological approach.

Sample and Study: 10 APNs who had a minimum of 10 years clinical experience dealing with patients of IPV were sequestered for face-to-face interviews. Each nurse was generally from the area surrounding the UTMB School of Nursing in Galvenston, Texas. The interviews were open-ended, and were conducted to elucidate different best practices involved in treating such patients. Once the recorded interviews were transcribed, the authors of this document analyzed them according to three stratifications regarding interpretation: paradigm cases, exemplars, and themes.

Codifying them as thus enabled the authors to identify a number of focal points regarding assessment and interventions that proved beneficial to those interviewed. Some of the most salient points related to assessment include a general cognizance of this particular health care problem, and proactive measures on the part of nurses (such as regular screenings, pattern recognition, and alertness to nonverbal and verbal cues) to actually seek out symptoms.

Many of the intervention methods pertain to establishing the right sort of patient, non-judgment relationship with victims and taking a holistic approach involving a synthesis of the mind, body and spirit towards various treatment options. Study Aims/Objectives: To glean insight from experienced APNs regarding the most efficacious means of treating women and families who were victims of IPV. Such insight was used to form best practices for assessment and intervention purposes.

The authors specifically desired to clarify the best means of forming a relationship with such victims and to identify both successes and challenges in working with them. Strengths/Limitations: The strengths of the study are the qualitative data attained from nurses with first-hand experience dealing with IPV. The article is enhanced by raw data -- actual excerpts from such nurses. The limitation revolves around the population sample, which was all from the same relative era and may reflect themes endemic to it.

Also, some of the nurses in the sample knew one another, which may have also impacted the results. Study Results: The results reveal that education for APN's should be changed to incorporate the themes identified by the nurses in the study. These themes pertain to areas of assessment and interventions for IPV.

Therefore, these results are both valid since they came from the experience of nursing professionals in this field and important because they influence future training to address this phenomenon, and directly respond to the patient question with a resounding affirmative reply -- since they indicate.