Advance Practice Nurse Barriers in Reporting Child Abuse or Neglect (Research Paper Sample)

Advance Practice Nurse Barriers in Reporting Child Abuse or Neglect: A Literature Review
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Summary
The following write-up offers a review of current literature regarding child abuse within the United States. The objective will be to offer a comprehensive theoretical framework for the proposed research study seeking to give an understanding of the barriers affecting the ability of nurses to report child abuse. In the current proposal, the researcher purports to find out the particular barriers behind the inability of advance practice nurses to report cases of child abuse. These will assist in making sensible recommendations that can improve the overall legislations governing the APRN practice when attending to cases of possible abuse.
Literature Review
Prevelence of Child Abuse and Neglect
In a study conducted by Skarsaune and Bondas (2016), 78% of the population of children within the USA go through some form of neglect. As an approximation, 18% suffer from physical abuse whereby 9% undergo sexual abuse. Currently, the level of primary care provided to children fails to guarantee comprehensive attention to the needs of patients who might have undergone child abuse. Usually, this happens since the victims of child abuse do not always show any signs of maltreatment. On the other hand, according to a research study conducted by Raman et al. (2014), children who were at risk of abuse underwent more hospitalizations compared to the counterparts. The study is conducted within an Australia metropolitan region, New South Wales.
Also, Raman et al (2014) targeted to generate an understanding of the clinical burden that physical abuse and neglect have on child patients. The target of the study was to identify the number of children who present with clinical symptoms of physical abuse and neglect in emergency departments. Importantly, this piece of literature gave a glimpse of the enablers and barriers regarding the ability to assess children suffering from this kind of abuse and neglect. In contrast, another study conducted by Borimnejad and Fomani (2015) states that nurse practitioners fail to make any follow up on cases of maltreatment for the fear of the harm associated with such interventions.
Additionally, Raman et al (2014) give reliable results as the study interviewed a total of 36 health practitioners from 9 hospitals. In addition, they also incorporated 12 statutory professionals overseeing child protection across the study area before incorporating the required document analysis. It is evident that a quarter of the 64,700 children admitted in emergency departments, presented with signs of injury. It is important to note the contribution made by Honor and Herendeen (2014) who report that it is mandatory for the individuals involved in the provision of primary care such as nurses, within the United States, to identify children who are at risk of maltreatment.
Barriers Faced by APNs while Providing Healthcare
The estimations and assessments made by the clinicians vary widely whereby the health and welfare workers identified key gaps that hinder practice. Additionally, Raman et al. (2014) argue that between 2%-5% of the cases of injury are associated with child maltreatment. As noted by Skarsaune and Bondas (2016), regardless of the NPs knowing about the need for them to assess and report any cases of maltreatment, they barely screen for patients who might have undergone maltreatment.
The study by Raman et al. (2014) however proposes several key standards that are required to improve clinical assessments as well as the follow up of children who present with physical abuse and neglect. However, the study stressed the importance of the nurse practitioners to receive organizational support from the stakeholders in order to enhance reporting of child abuse. Child abuse raises many questions from various quarters since it is the epicenter of public outcry and sensationalist media attention.
In another descriptive survey conducted by Saifan, Alrimawi, and Bashayreh (2015), regardless of the many efforts conducted to protect children around the world, the main challenges were as a result of child neglect as well as abuse. The exploratory study is based within Palestine where there is little knowledge on child abuse. Nurses hence are faced with the challenge of exposing child physical abuse which is often hidden within the culture of the communities hence affecting the ability to make reports. The report exposes the problem arising from the perception of nurses regarding child neglect and physical abuse.
Out of the total number of interviewed participants, only 33% of the participants intended to refer their patients for specialized treatment. The researchers observe the ability of the nurses to interact with other professionals within the ministry of health and go about the business of managing suspected cases of abuse during care provision. With regards to the barriers associated with an inability of nurses to report child abuse, Borimnejad and Fomani (2015) give a glimpse of the situation in Iran. To begin with, the Iranian nurses report cases of child abuse voluntarily unlike in other countries where reporting of child abuse is mandatory. Most of the cases were reported to the police authorities, welfare organizations or other NGOs. Another barrier is the absence of legal support within the Iranian cultural context which hinders the process of nurses reporting cases of child abuse.
The nurses according to Saifan, Alrimawi and Bashayreh (2015) need to relate with other stakeholders from the ministry of health and other child protection organizations. Interestingly, the study also sought to understand the willingness of the APRNs to associate with police officers for them to investigate the perpetrators of the acts. In the area where the study was conducted, there is 79% cases of neglect, 61% psychological abuse as well as 27% sexual abuse including cases of rape. Most of the nurse practitioners do not have an idea on how to handle cases of suspected child abuse. The research provided baseline information regarding understanding the practice of nurses on the ground in an aim to offer proper conditions required by the nurses to practice their APN role.
The Failure to recognize Child Abuse and Anticipated Consequences of reporting Abuse
Barlow (2015) underlines the problem of a lack of knowledge, as well as education on child malpractice. Additionally, there is also another barrier which is negative perceptions of child abuse which does not prove whether child abuse took place. The researcher selected APRNs obtained from the DOPL database to generate 1225 NPs as well as nurse midwives. The study findings underline the importance of giving a report of any cases of child abuse since a big number of the child population within the USA underwent maltreatment.
Furthermore, according to Patrick (2015), his doctoral project depicts a need for nurse practitioners to be observant for cases of physical abuse and neglect. In this research web designed surveys are used to understand cases of human trafficking and sexual abuse. The researcher based his study on CANP which is an association of nurse practitioners within California to examine the knowledge of APN nurses regarding child sexual exploitation. The study used 37 participants most of them older APNs who had practiced in family practice.
Patrick (2015) reports a statistical significance with years of experience whereby the APNs who had more than 10 years of practice outperformed others who had less than 10 years of nursing practice. However, in another study by Bradbury-Jones and Broadhurst (2015) the nurse practitioners could increase their level of confidence in dealing with cases pf child abuse. The expected reports were marred by a lack of trust in recognition and response to violence amongst the nurses. This situation raised concern amongst the student nurses who find it necessary for them to possess these skills as registered practitioners.
As a result, there is a need for all the NPs to undertake the responsibility for screening their child patients for