Emergency Medicine and Acute Care

The problem of domestic violence occurs in all societies and cultures and for many years it’s been regarded as an important social issue especially in Western Europe. At that time, international organizations created plenty of documents advising the member States of the European Union, to take changes in law and practice in order to raise the eff ectiveness of combat with domestic violence and to provide victims of violence with assistance and eff ective interaction for domestic violence perpetrators. Up to this day in Poland, domestic violence was not seen as a purely pathological phenomenon. Initially, the problem was marginalized and silenced, because families with a domestic violence problem carefully hid these facts, especially in contact with health care system. Th erefore, it was necessary to determine the role of nurses as people of fi rst contact with the patient, which in the event of diagnosis of symptoms which indicate violence can take an appropriate diagnose and therapeutic measures which would lead to the prevention of domestic violence. Th e main objective was to determine the level of knowledge of professionally active nurses and students of nursing connected with the problem of domestic violence (279 active nurses and 281 students of nursing). Th e author used a questionnaire. Both groups of respondents did not recognize the long-term eff ects of domestic violence; they well recognize factors infl uencing the violence development. Respondents experienced violence in their families and problem of violence is oft en found in work of nurses and students’ private environment. Both groups rated their knowledge at the secondary level. Nurses and students perceive a nurse as a person who can prevent domestic violence and have their place in an interdisciplinary team procedure called blue bear, implementation of procedures designed for nursing standard diagnoses and therapeutic procedure in case of violence in the family.