PUBLIC-HEALTH NURSES AND THE PREVENTION OF AND INTERVENTION IN FAMILY VIOLENCE

This article seeks to describe the current efforts of public health nurses involved in family violence prevention while on home visits, participating in community groups, working on special projects, and developing innovative policies. Despite a dearth of outcomes research and data regarding public health nursing practice in this area, both strengths and weaknesses in public health nursing practice are evident. Improvements in nursing education related to family violence, an increase in multidisciplinary collaboration by public health nurses, and improvements in the utilization of public health nurses in the public health infrastructure and in primary prevention efforts would remove many barriers to effective family violence prevention strategies.