Integrating Trauma-Informed Clinical Interviewing Skills in Medical Education for Screening Domestic Violence and Abuse

Abstract

A pre-post-training workshop was conducted among 22 postgraduate trainees of the Psychiatry and Emergency Department of a public sector hospital in Karachi. The workshop aimed to build the capacity of postgraduate trainees in trauma management by providing training on screening, clinical interviewing skills, and Psychological first aid to those exposed to domestic violence (DV). The effectiveness of each training module was evaluated by conducting a brief assessment before and after each module and scores were compared using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The post-test showed significant improvement in participants’ knowledge on screening of domestic violence and trauma symptoms (p = 0.026) and psychological first aid (p <0.001). Postgraduate training programmes need to integrate trauma screening and management education, to prepare healthcare professionals to deal with sensitive clinical presentations at their work settings.