Abstract:
In South Africa, a woman is killed by a male partner every six hours, making South Africa’s intimate
femicide rate the highest, globally. Nurses are in a unique position to identify, assist and support
women who are at risk or who experience intimate partner violence (IPV) when such women seek
help. Unfortunately, nurses often fail to use this critical opportunity to break the cycle of violence
because of a lack of confidence, skills and support systems. The purpose of the systematic review was
to appraise learning needs and curricula of nurse education on intervention and prevention of intimate
partner violence. A selection of electronic databases for the period 2009-2014 was used as data
sources. The systematic review involved a computerised search of the selected databases to identify
and assess published studies on nurse education curricula and learning programmes on intimate partner
violence intervention and prevention. Of the 1 446 identified studies, 56 studies were initially
identified for review and then reduced to 14 after excluding studies that did not meet the selection
criteria. These articles were critically appraised with the use of a set of qualitative criteria. Studies
reviewed identified the need for training nurses on their roles and responsibilities on IPV intervention
and prevention and developing their core competencies in this domain. Studies also indicated the skills
needed by nurse educators in the education and training of student nurses on IPV intervention and
prevention. The key aspects of IPV curricula content that were positively accepted by nurses included
knowledge, attitudinal and skills components, as well as environmental-, management- and systems
components. A limitation of the study was the exclusion of domestic violence. While intimate partner
violence and domestic violence overlap, it may well be that in the literature some studies may have
focused on domestic violence prevention and intervention.The outcomes of this review gives insight into how nurse education and professional development can be structured in local- and international
health care education settings for IPV intervention and prevention. Recommendations are offered for
curriculum design and development for nurse educators and nurse education on IPV intervention and
prevention. The findings of the study could contribute to developing nurse education curricula in local
and international contexts to prevent and intervene in IPV as a global public health care phenomenon.
