Nursing Students' Knowledge Level on Identification and Risks of Child Abuse and Neglect: A Descriptive Study

INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to determine the knowledge levels of nursing department final year students to diagnose the symptoms and risks of child abuse and neglect and to investigate their relationship with sociodemographic characteristics.
METHODS: The study was conducted with the senior students of the nursing department of a nursing faculty in İstanbul and a faculty of health sciences in Konya. 326 students participated in the study. “Information Form” and “Scale for Diagnosing Symptoms and Risks of Child Abuse and Neglect” were used for data collection. Data were evaluated with mean, standard deviation, frequency, Student t test, One Way ANOVA test, Pearson Correlation, and Regression analysis.
RESULTS: The average score of the students was 3.55 ± 0.29. The lowest score (2.96 ± 0.38) was obtained from the subdimension of the Characteristics of Abuse and Neglected Children; they received the highest scores Symptoms of Neglect (3.97 ± 0.50); Physical Symptoms of Abuse and Neglect in Children (3.70 ± 0.37).
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: When the level of knowledge of abuse and neglect was compared with the maximum score of 5.0 in each subscale and total scale score, the level of knowledge of the students was not at the desired level. It may be suggested to make interventions (such as integrating into courses, opening elective courses) in the curriculum to increase the knowledge levels of students about the symptoms and risks of child abuse and neglect.