BEST PRACTICE RECOMMENDATIONS FOR OVERCOMING BARRIERS TO DETECTING AND REPORTING CHILD MALTREATMENT

Abstract

According to the Children’s Bureau (2018), 4.3 million referrals for child maltreatment were made to Child Protective Services (CPS) in 2018. Of the confirmed cases of child maltreatment, only 391,661 children received services (Children’s Bureau, 2018). For children who face maltreatment, they also face potential long-term health deficits such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and anxiety (Young & Widom, 2014). Nurses in the inpatient setting playa unique role in being able to care for children for extended periods of time, which gives them a better chance of being able to detect or report these cases of child maltreatment earlier. This thesis will explore the barriers that currently exist in the inpatient setting that might hinder nurses from being able to successfully detect and report maltreatment. Evidence-base recommendations on how nurses can be more successful at detecting and reporting child maltreatment will be created based off of research findings and studies collected through CINAHL database. Best practice recommendations will then guide an educational module that could be implemented to help nurses become more effective at reporting and detecting child maltreatment, in order to potentially avoid the long-term trauma that abused children face.