Coping strategies adopted by nurses experiencing domestic violence by their marital partners.

Abstract

This facility-based study was conducted at a tertiary care hospital in New Delhi. Thirty nurses identified to be exposed to physical or sexual violence ever in life through a pilot study were purposively selected for further studying their coping strategies. The pilot study was initially conducted among 60 ever married female nurses sampled conveniently. Data was collected using self-administered standardised questionnaire adapted from WHO multi-country study on women's health and domestic violence. To estimate coping strategies, Section 9 of the data were analysed using SPSS 12 software. Eleven respondents (36.3%) experiencing physical or sexual violence, informed friends and close relatives about husband's violent behaviour while 40 percent talked to no one. Only 5 (16.7%) nurses sought help from formal agencies. Reasons for not seeking help mainly were considering violence as normal/not serious (20%), fear that he would end relationship (20%), fear of consequences (16.7%). Nurses mainly sought help on being encouraged by friends/family (6.7%). The study found that relatively few nurses experiencing domestic violence talk to someone or seek help from formal agencies.