Perhaps everyone with experience of abusive relationship would be sympathetic with those who are experiencing the same situation. So I should say that the tendency for most of nurses who had abusive relationship in the past is to be sympathetic with abused patients. Patients who are victims of domestic violence can relate to them and it would be easy for these nurses to establish mutual understanding with regards to the treatment for them.
The task of listening and helping abused women who have experienced atrocities, degradation and humiliation can be very uncomfortable but is part of nurses’ responsibility to empower abused women to escape and begin the process of regaining their a safe and stable experience. The Nurse with previous abusive relationship can be effective in doing psychosocial assessment with patient because she would be more careful in dealing with patients.
Videbeck (2007) noted “being able to listen to the client without judgment and to support the discussion of personal topics takes practice and usually gets easier with experience” (p. 155). The nurse personal experience of what the client is suffering can equip her to be able to such situation. Another way in which the nurse’s previous abusive relationship positively affects his or her practice with victims of domestic violence is in indentifying the patient’s condition.
Pyrek, (2006) Physicians “generally cannot tell which patients are in abusive relationship…” (p. 40). Without properly identifying patients experiencing abusive relationship, Pyrek noted that health care institutions are in bad light to provide care for victims of domestic violence. Nurses’ who had previous abusive relationship can help a lot in identifying the patient’s condition. Wheeler (2007) cited that those who suffered abuse felt intense shame and is facing complicated emotional problems (p. 315).
Patients in this condition are difficult to deal with and the only people who could understand well their situation are those familiar with what they are suffering. That is, nurses who had previous abusive relationship could be the right person to handle them. Reference Pyrek, K. (2006) Forensic Nursing USA: CRC Press Videbeck, S. L. (2007) Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing China: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Wheeler, K. (2007) Psychotherapy for the Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurse USA: