Power devices used by nurses to fight domestic violence against women

Abstract

Objective: to identify the power devices used by nurses to fight domestic violence against women from the perspective of parrhesia. Method: qualitative study addressing 20 nurses from 13 Primary Heath Care units located in Rio Grande, south of Brazil. Interviews were held from April to June 2018, and data were treated using NVIVO 11 under the light of the Discursive Textual Analysis and Foucault’s philosophical framework. Result: two categories emerged from the analysis: (1) knowledge devices and (2) administrative/institutional devices. The first refers to the nurses’ actions, such as sharing information concerning domestic violence against women and the second concerns the health units’ actions to fight violence and referrals to other sectors focused on providing care to women experiencing domestic violence. Conclusion: nurses use power devices to support women so they can transform their lives. Nursing can promote social transformations as it is engaged with actions intended to promote health.