Preparing Pharmacists to Care for Patients Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence

Abstract

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a serious, highly prevalent public health problem associated with poor health outcomes, negative impacts on medication behavior, and increased health care utilization and costs. Pharmacists, the most accessible health care providers, are the only provider group not required to be trained on this topic. Training can prepare pharmacists to safely and appropriately care for patients experiencing IPV. This project evaluated a pharmacy-specific continuing professional development module on IPV utilizing a quasi-experimental pretest–posttest study design. Practicing community pharmacists were recruited from a market research panel to complete the online module. A novel method for managing IPV disclosures, the Care, Assess for safety, Refer, and Document (CARD) method, was included in the training. A total of 36 pharmacists completed the study, including a three-month follow-up assessment. Participants reported increased perceived preparedness and knowledge, workplace and self-efficacy, staff preparation, and legal requirements, but not actual knowledge. Practice changes, including identification of legal reporting requirements (19.4%) and development of protocols for managing IPV disclosures (13.9%), were reported at follow-up. This is the first examination of an educational module on the topic of IPV for pharmacists and it positively impacted pharmacists’ preparedness and practice behaviors related to IPV over an extended follow-up period.

Keywords

• intimate partner violence
• continuing education
• domestic violence
• pharmacy practice
• community pharmacy
• women’s health