Healthcare Provider Responses and Preparedness towards Caring for Females who have Experienced Intimate Partner Violence in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Females who experience intimate partner violence have frequent and repeated contact with healthcare providers whose ability to provide care and support is contextual and often problematized by gendered attitudes and beliefs. This cross-sectional study examined healthcare providers' responses and preparedness to care for females who reported intimate partner violence in hospital and community care settings in Sri Lanka. In total, 405 healthcare providers from four provinces completed a questionnaire. Data were analyzed using descriptive and analytical statistics. Of the 177 nurses, 145 doctors, and 83 midwives who participated in the study, most (76%) had met females living with intimate partner violence, but the types of violence reported to them, and their responses varied among the three professions. A range of factors operating at the individual, institutional, and community levels shaped healthcare provider responses and preparedness to support females reporting intimate partner violence (IPV). These results have implications for the training of healthcare providers and for putting in place adequate institutional resources in order to improve the health sector response to IPV.

Keywords

• healthcare provider preparedness
• healthcare provider responses
• health sector response
• intimate partner violence