Assessment of Healthcare Professionals' Preparedness to Screen for and Manage Women Experiencing Intimate Partner Violence During the Perinatal Period

AP-HP has recently opened five hospital-based care units dedicated to supporting women who are victims of violence. Referrals of women to these units rely mainly on healthcare professionals. Despite the recommendations of the French National Authority for Health (HAS), screening for Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is not systematically performed. Moreover, although women tend to disclose experiences of violence preferentially to healthcare professionals, these professionals report feeling insufficiently trained to address this issue. In France, only one national survey assessing knowledge and screening capacities regarding domestic violence has been conducted, and it was limited to midwives. No study has evaluated screening practices and the ability to manage women experiencing IPV. One questionnaire is available: the PREMIS questionnaire (Physician Readiness to Manage Intimate Partner Violence Survey). This self-administered questionnaire includes 67 items and was developed and validated in a population of healthcare professionals in the United States. It demonstrated good internal consistency, with a Cronbach's alpha coefficient greater than 0.65 for all validated subscales. Its external validity was also tested by comparing questionnaire responses with a field-based observational survey of professional practices, showing good correlation. Stability of responses over time (12 months) was also demonstrated. The questionnaire is able to discriminate between respondents who have received training and those who have not, with a positive correlation between knowledge acquired through experience and the number of hours of personal training. To our knowledge, it is the only validated tool to assess healthcare professionals' preparedness to screen for and manage intimate partner violence. Its French transcultural adaptation was scientifically validated in 2021.