Recommended components of health care provider training programs on intimate partner violence

Abstract

Programs that are effective in training health care providers to recognize and meet the needs of victims of intimate partner violence must be identified and replicated. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has developed criteria for use in developing, enhancing, and evaluating such programs. CDC developed these criteria as a result of continuing efforts to provide useful products for constituents through literature reviews and consultations with experts in the field; evaluations of training programs; creation of an inventory and annotated bibliography of health care provider training programs in the United States and Canada; and development of a framework to assist hospitals and health centers in evaluating their training programs. Training should begin while providers are in professional school and continue in the health care setting. Curricula should be multidisciplinary and should provide information, promote clinical skills, and effectively link providers with resources. Evaluation should assist programs in determining providers' needs and identifying appropriate materials, trainers, and training strategies. CDC is working to establish scientific evidence that provider training programs are effective and to share successful models with others. Providers have an important role in stopping and ultimately preventing intimate partner violence, but they are not alone in this effort. They need to know how to access the growing network of assistance including women's advocates, the criminal justice system, and other members of increasingly dynamic community coalitions.