Social representations of nurses concerning domestic violence against women: study with a structural approach

OBJECTIVE  To analyse the structure and contents of the social representations of nurses concerning domestic violence against women.

METHODS  This is a qualitative study conducted with 100 nurses between May and September 2014 in two hospitals of Rio Grande, RS, Brazil. Data were collected through evocations and semi-structured interviews. The data were processed in Evoc software and subjected to contextual analysis, respectively.

RESULTS  A negative representation was identified with core elements alluding to forms of violence and its judgment, expressed as "physical aggression" and "contempt". In the periphery, "fear" is how the professionals and the victims feel toward the aggressor and "submission" is mentioned as a cause of violence. The term “verbal aggression” in the contrast zone suggests the possibility of a subgroup with a different representation.

CONCLUSIONS  A centralised view regarding physical injuries and the culpabilisation of domestic abuse victims can limit care actions, revealing the need to discuss this subject with health workers.

Keywords:
Violence against women; Nursing; Delivery of healthcare; Nursing care