Child Abuse Screening in the Emergency Department

Background: To identify facilitators and barriers to screening for child abuse in emergency departments (ED) through interviews with ED staff, members of the hospital Board, and related experts. Methods: This qualitative study is based on semi-structured interviews with 17 professionals from gerash amir-al-momenin hospital (i.e. 5 pediatricians, 2 surgeons, 7 ED nurses and 3 hospital Board members). The resulting list of facilitators/barriers was subsequently discussed with 2 experts in child abuse and 1 implementation expert. Results: Lack of knowledge of child abuse, communication with parents in the case of suspected abuse, and lack of time for development of policy and cases are barriers for ED staff to screen for child abuse. For Board members, lack of means and time, and a high turnover of ED staff are impediments to improving their child abuse policy. Screening can be promoted by training ED staff to better recognize child abuse, improving communication skills, appointing an attendant specifically for child abuse, explicit support of the screening policy by management, and by national implementation of an approved protocol and validated screening instrument. Conclusions: ED staffs are motivated to work but experiences many barriers, particularly communication with parents of children suspected of being abused. Introduction of a national child abuse protocol can improve screening on child abuse at EDs.

کلیدواژه ها:

Child abuse ، E mergency department ، Screening