It is a common truth that previous experience related to difficult situations can have a significant influence on people’s personal life and career. Speaking about the impact of negative experience on professionalism, it is important to discuss the way that nurses’ previous abusive relationships affect their practice with victims of domestic violence. The impact of traumatic experiences can be both positive and negative.
Nurses’ previous experience can have a positive impact on the outcomes for their patients because they know everything about violence in relationships and can give other victims a piece of advice. When it comes to nurses who have managed to make the decision to finish their abusive relationships on their own, it can be said that such specialists are likely to be more objective when communicating with their patients who suffer from domestic violence.
Also, it is known that victims of domestic violence are usually concerned about the problem of confidentiality (Du Mont et al., 2014). Experiencing violence in relationships, many people understand the importance of trust and safety. Therefore, it can be supposed that nurses who have such an experience will be more likely to pay focused attention to the key psychological needs of their patients.
At the same time, the situation can be different if a nursing specialist has failed to make the right conclusions concerning her or his previous experience. Thus, it often happens that victims of violence blame themselves and suppose that traumatic experience is always caused by their own actions and mistakes (Ullman & Peter-Hagene, 2014). If such a tendency is manifested in nursing specialists, the latter will be likely to apply the same principle when providing their patients with assistance.
To sum it up, nurses’ previous experience of abusive relationships can have a significant influence on the outcomes for their patients. The impact can be positive as nurses know what can be done to encourage a victim. Nevertheless, victim-blaming remains a tendency that can be manifested even in those people who have experienced violence in relationships.
References
Du Mont, J., Macdonald, S., White, M., Turner, L., White, D., Kaplan, S., & Smith, T. (2014). Client satisfaction with nursing-led sexual assault and domestic violence services in Ontario. Journal of Forensic Nursing, 10(3), 122-134.
Ullman, S. E., & Peter-Hagene, L. (2014). Social reactions to sexual assault disclosure, coping, perceived control, and PTSD symptoms in sexual assault victims. Journal of Community Psychology, 42(4), 495-508.