Enhancing Competency Among Health Care Professionals in Caring for Victims of Domestic Violence at The Urban Indian Center in Salt Lake City, Utah

Background: American Indian and Alaskan Native women are at higher risk than any other demographic for being victims of domestic violence. Identified barriers that prevent health professionals from addressing domestic violence during clinic visits include lack of education, training, and time. Providers at the Urban Indian Center in Salt Lake City, Utah expressed interest in increasing their education surrounding recognizing signs of domestic violence, and in providing resources for victims in the Salt Lake area. Methods: A quality improvement project was developed to help increase knowledge among health care professionals at the Urban Indian Center. Health care professionals of various backgrounds completed a survey assessing their current knowledge surrounding signs and symptoms of domestic violence, resources available in the area, the utility of screening tools in primary care, types of domestic violence, and the history of domestic violence in Native tradition. An education presentation, or toolkit, was developed and presented to the health care professionals. This presentation included information on the items listed above. Following the presentation, the same survey was sent to the participants to assess their change in knowledge. The number of referrals issued by providers for victims of domestic violence was also assess for the three months prior to and following the intervention. Results: When comparing the pre and post-surveys, it was found that knowledge among the health care professionals increased as a result of the intervention. A paired t-test was utilized to compare pre and post knowledge and found that there was a significant improvement in post scores (N=8, Mean =4.25, SD=0.46) compared to pre-scores (N=10, Mean = 3.4, SD=0.84) (t (7) = 2.96, p = 0.02). The number of referrals incidentally decreased, a finding that was not anticipated. Conclusions: The educational toolkit appears to be a valuable resource to help increase education surrounding domestic violence for health care professionals at the Urban Indian Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. Replication of this quality improvement project should be completed at other health centers of similar makeup to determine if education among health care professionals increases elsewhere.