Intimate partner violence amongst undergraduate nursing students

Abstract

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is reported to be rife among the student population at tertiary institutions and the general population. Yet the abuse is under diagnosed by nurses in health care settings. Research indicates that nurses’ personal experiences of this type of abuse play a role in the management of survivors. Hence, this study investigated the prevalence and factors associated with IPV among the undergraduate nursing student population at a tertiary institution in the Western Cape, South Africa. A self-administered questionnaire was completed by the stratified random sample. The reported lifetime prevalence of IPV included psychological, physical, financial and sexual abuse. IPV was significantly associated with the educational status of the respondent’s mother, financial support and witnessing of abuse during childhood. A support structure is thus needed to prepare the undergraduate student nurses emotionally before commencing with their training in the management of survivors of IPV.