Violence against women is a serious health and social problem for women worldwide. Researchers have investigated the broad physical and mental health consequences of violence against women but few have focused on immigrant and refugee women. We assessed the history of violence and the impairment of physical and mental health among 60 women participants from the Iranian and Sri Lankan Tamil communities in Toronto, Canada. Our survey findings revealed that the participants had experienced various types of violence throughout their lifespan, with psychological abuse by a spouse/partner occurring most frequently in the past 12 months. Commonly reported types of abuse included insulting, criticizing, and intimidation by partner (psychological abuse); slapping, hitting, and shoving (physical abuse); and forced sexual intercourse and sexually degrading acts (sexual abuse) by a partner/spouse. We found that a substantial proportion of the participants also had experienced physical and mental health impairment, which could be a result of the various types of violence they had experienced throughout their lifespan. Research and practice implications are provided.

The current project undertook a province-wide survey and environmental scan of educational opportunities available to future health care providers on the topic of intimate partner violence (IPV) against women.

Background. The transtheoretical model of change (TTM) was used as a framework to examine the steps that women took to disclose intimate partner violence (IPV) in urban emergency departments. Methods. Mapping methods portrayed the evolving nature of decisions that facilitated or inhibited disclosure. This paper is a secondary analysis of qualitative data from a mixed methods study that explored abused women’s decision making process about IPV disclosure. Findings. Change maps were created for 19 participants with movement from the precontemplation to the maintenance stages of the model. Disclosure often occurred after a significant “turning point event” combined with a series of smaller events over a period of time. The significant life event often involved a weighing of options where participants considered the perceived risks against the potential benefits of disclosure. Conclusions. Abused women experienced intrusion from the chaotic nature of the emergency department. IPV disclosure was perceived as a positive experience when participants trusted the health care provider and felt control over their decisions to disclose IPV. Practice Implications. Nurses can use these findings to gauge the readiness of women to disclose IPV in the emergency department setting.

Nurses have great potential to contribute to the development of health policy through political action. We undertook a systematic website review of international- and national-level professional nursing organizations to determine how they engaged registered nurses in health policy activities, including policy priority setting, policy goals and objectives, policy products, and mechanisms for engaging nurses in policy issues. We reviewed 38 organizations for eligibility and 15 organization websites met our inclusion criteria. Six professional nursing organizations had comprehensive websites with a discussion of specific policy goals and objectives, policy-related products and mechanisms for nurses to become engaged. Future research is needed to evaluate how nursing professional organizations establish policy priorities and to evaluate the effectiveness of the strategies used to politically engage nurses.

Nurse knowledge brokers can bridge the gap between those who produce research and those in need of evidence for decision-making. They can also support capacity development for evidence-informed decision-making.