Woman Abuse: Screening, Identification and Initial Response

Published: May 2012
Available in English, French, Spanish
Mental health and substance use

Purpose and scope

The overall purpose of this guideline is to facilitate routine universal screening for woman abuse by nurses in all practice settings. The scope of this guideline is on screening women for intimate partner abuse. The guideline includes all women in intimate relationships, 12 years of age…

The overall purpose of this guideline is to facilitate routine universal screening for woman abuse by nurses in all practice settings.

The scope of this guideline is on screening women for intimate partner abuse. The guideline includes all women in intimate relationships, 12 years of age or older and identifies: 

  • who should do the screening,
  • what should be included in screening, and
  • how and under what circumstances screening should occur

Please see also the supplement to this guideline which provides updated recommendations.

Reference

Main guideline (including 2012 supplement): 

Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario. (2005). Woman abuse: Screening, identification and initial response. Toronto, Canada: Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario.

Recommendations

Do you want to learn about and implement the most- up-to-date evidence-based recommendations on this topic with your colleagues? Download and share the full best practice guideline (BPG), Woman Abuse: Screening, Identification and Initial Response.
See below for a snapshot of the recommendations from this BPG. We strongly suggest you review the full BPG before implementing the recommendations and good practice statements. The BPG also includes further resources to support implementation and evaluation.  

Disclaimer: These guidelines are not binding for nurses, other health providers or the organizations that employ them. The use of these guidelines should be flexible and based on individual needs and local circumstances. They constitute neither a liability nor discharge from liability. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the contents at the time of publication, neither the authors nor the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO) gives any guarantee as to the accuracy of the information contained in them or accepts any liability with respect to loss, damage, injury or expense arising from any such errors or omission in the contents of this work.

Revision status

Current edition published: March 2005 with May 2012 supplement

About the next edition: 

The Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario (RNAO) is developing a second edition of this best practice guideline (BPG), with the working title Intimate Partner Violence. The anticipated publication date is 2025.

This new edition will revise the previous edition BPG: 

  • Woman abuse: Screening, identification and initial response (2005 with 2012 supplement) 

Contact

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