Here's what I presented at the meeting on Wednesday!! Now that its accepted... the real work begins!
BRIDGING
THE GAP IN DOMESTIC VIOLENCE VICITIMS' ACCESS TO HEALTHCARE
An
Undergraduate Honors Project Presented
By
Ericka
Samoorian
To
The
School of Nursing
Rhode
Island College
2013
My
intent for my nursing Honors Project would be to create a project around
domestic violence (DV) and nursing. I have experience working with domestic
violence prevention and awareness groups. I am currently a volunteer at the
Women’s Center of Rhode Island (WCRI). The Women’s Center of Rhode Island
provides both residential and community services to women and their children
who are facing domestic violence.
During my time volunteering in the shelter, I have become
aware that the residents and their children have many healthcare needs. Whether
it is because the women and their children have preexisting health conditions,
both physical and psychiatric, that require regular healthcare maintenance, or are
on medication, or they may need access to health care related to the health
consequences of the domestic violence. The WCRI does not provide any health
services within the shelter. The purpose
of this study is to research what barriers the women of DV face when accessing
healthcare and to see if a telehealth nursing service would be beneficial for
them. The study would look at their access to health care which can be defined
by how the women take care of their health, such as their health promotion
activities, going to primary care visits, preventative visits, what types of healthcare
providers do they see and how often, and what is their level of comfort with
their healthcare providers.
I would like to
research the residents’ access to healthcare services to find out if they could
benefit from an intervention of population specific telehealth nursing
services. Telehealth services provide patient care through electronic
technology. Telenursing can take place through a nursing call center where
nurses can provide telephone triage, health information, and referral services
available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. The nurses can use a wide
array of technologies such as the telephone, computer, telemonitoring equipment
to assess, plan, and provide nursing care (Hutcherson, 2001).
Objectives:
·
To assess WCRI's residents’ access to
healthcare by looking at
o
Health care practices before the shelter
and during their time within the shelter
o
Participation in primary care and other
services such as
§ Ob/Gyn
Services
§ Mental
Health Services
§ Dental
Services
§ Ophthalmology
Services
o
Participation in preventative healthcare
screenings such as
§ Mammograms
§ Colonoscopies
§ Pap
smears
o
Comfort levels with their providers
§ How
comfortable are they with making an appointment, going to an appointment, and
following up with referred care
o
Other barriers to care such as
§ Health
insurance
§ Being
from out of state
§ Language
barriers
§ Being
scared to get help
o
Perception of nursing care
§ Awareness
of telenursing services
Methodologies:
·
An exploratory study utilizing a
self-created questionnaire containing both quantitative and qualitative
questions (between 10-15 questions) to research the objectives.
·
Descriptive analysis will be used to
synthesize the data from the likert scale questions. Themes from the open-ended
questions will be coded and analyzed.
Dates:
o
Choose
advisor January 2013 (Completed)
o
Obtain
permission to conduct research within WCRI March 2013
(Completed)
o
Gather literature to support research
Spring 2013
o
Create questionnaire
April 2013
o
Submit to RIC IRB May 1, 2013
o
Gather data via survey @ WCRI Summer 2013
o
Compile/analyze data & complete research
paper Fall 2013-4/1/2014
o
Present Honors Project Spring 2014
Advisor:
Dr. Karen Hetzel
Reference
Hutcherson, C.M.
(2001). Legal Considerations for nurses practicing in a telehealth setting.
The Online Journal of Issues in
Nursing. 6(3). Retrieved from http://www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Volume62001/No3Sept01/LegalConsiderations.html
