Reflective Essay: Family Violence Intervention in Nursing Practice

This reflective essay narrates a nursing student's experience caring for a 19-year-old victim of domestic violence. The essay details the emotional and physical abuse suffered by the young woman and the student's feelings and actions in providing care. The student describes taking the victim to the Australian Nursing Home Foundation and using crisis intervention strategies learned during their nursing program. The essay evaluates the effectiveness of these interventions, including counseling and creating a supportive environment, in reducing the victim's post-traumatic stress and anxiety. The student reflects on the importance of understanding the victim's thought process and validating her feelings to empower her to leave the abusive situation. The conclusion emphasizes the role of professional training in providing effective support and care to victims of family violence.

Running head: REFLECTIVE ESSAY ON FAMILY VIOLENCE
Reflective Essay on Family Violence
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author note

1REFLECTIVE ESSAY ON FAMILY VIOLENCE
Introduction
Domestic violence is indicative of the abuse that is carried out by a person against
another individual within the confines of a domestic setting like marriage or in the case of
cohabitation. Domestic violence takes place when two individuals having close personal
relationship and one person makes the other person to feel afraid and powerless (Johnson,
2016). This essay narrates an incident that I have experienced with a victim of domestic
violence and the effect that it had on me. It elaborates on the feelings that I underwent and
evaluates this incident.
Description
The last week I had taken care of a young woman who was of 19 years of age and had
been emotionally and physically abused by his husband. She was the daughter of a truck
driver (lower class) and they got her married off at an early age. The husband of the girl was
an alcoholic and a drug addict and he had been abusing the girl for one year. The woman
could not at last tolerate the excruciating torture anymore and ran away from her husband’s
place. I found her on the street where she was weeping continuously and was inconsolable
(Berns, 2017). She confided the fact that she could not return to her marital home as it would
stigmatise their family. I decided to off my help to the young woman that can help her to
regain her mental equilibrium.
Feelings
I had been working as a nurse in Australian Nursing Home Foundation for the past 2
years. There are patients who suffer from social abuse problem, homelessness, drug abuse,
employment and disability and all these patients need some kind of mental along with
physical support. I thought that taking these girl to the organisation would help her
immensely in gaining mental and physical strength. It would provide her with the opportunity

2REFLECTIVE ESSAY ON FAMILY VIOLENCE
to revive her mental strength (Pearlman et al., 2016). I took her Australian Nursing Home
Foundation and took her to my chamber. I thought that diverting her mind was important at
this stage as it would help the young woman to forget the bad experiences that had been
inflicted on her. It was crucial that she forgets the bitter experiences that had been recently
inflicted on her. The nurse has to take care of the fact that the client is moved from impulsive
action to the reflections by consideration of the transference along with counter transference
process. The client should not be taken to a place which she would not be able to tolerate
(Osofsky, 2018). The client had suffered bruises on her body and it was necessary to recover
her physical health. It was important to divert the attention of the girl and place her in a
surrounding that does not cause her mental agony. There are children within the organization
who are suffering from physical wounds and I thought that talking to these children helped
her in getting over her mental strain. Talking to the children would help the woman and I
thought that it can help her in becoming normal.
Evaluation
This was the first time that I had myself taken a patient home with me so my
responsibility in this case was all the more. Previously I had provided therapy to the patients
who were there in Australian Nursing Home Foundation but since this time I had personally
taken the patient to the organization I felt that I should be taking up more responsibilities and
give greater attention to the young woman. The incident of domestic abuse has been
complicated by the fact that the family of the girl was reluctant to provide support to her. The
area where they live in belong to the rural area and there exist various superstition regarding
taking a married woman back to the home again. I learnt from the girl that in previous
occasions her family did not provide her with the mental support (Childress, Gioia &
Campbell, 2018). I felt that talking with the children proved to be a good remedy from her as
it helped in moving her mind away from the painful memories that she had to endure while

3REFLECTIVE ESSAY ON FAMILY VIOLENCE
living with her husband. After spending time with the child and engaging in conversation
with me the woman felt better and the sorrow that had previously enveloped her started to
disappear. The post-traumatic stress disorder of the woman was reduced with the help of
counselling and it helped in reducing her anxiety. The woman was shaking out of extreme
fear and validating the feelings of the victim helped in removing the fear of the victim
(Cattaneo & Goodman, 2015). I administered medication to the nurse and monitored her
physical condition from time to time. I also communicated with the doctors so that they can
help my client in recovering from her physical condition.
Analysis
I was able to monitor and deal with the patient by using the things that I had learnt in
the bachelor Degree Program of Nursing. I was able to make use of the crisis intervention
strategies that I was taught during my degree program. I was able to get insight into the
aspect of human thought during my degree program and I was able to use these knowledge in
my practice (Pain, 2014). The lectures that had been taught during my class helps me in my
professional practice and I was apply to apply them when dealing with my client. I looked
after the multiple injuries of the clients and tended to her injuries very patiently. I told the
victim that she does not have to deal with the stress in her everyday life and she should leave
her husband as he was not providing her with the proper respect that a wife does. She felt that
she should not live with such a person and validating her feelings made her feel more strong
and remove the element of fear from her life (Berhane, 2017).
Conclusions
In my last week I encountered a girl who was physically and mentally abused by the
husband. The husband of the girl had tortured the girl for around 1 year as he was a victim of
alcohol along with drug abuse. I thought that my professional position as counsellor would

4REFLECTIVE ESSAY ON FAMILY VIOLENCE
greatly help the victim and I took her to the organization called Australian Nursing Home
Foundation so that she would be able to overcome the mental strain in her life. There were
children in Australian Nursing Home Foundation and having conversation with these children
greatly helped my victim in forgetting the painful experiences that she had faced in her life.
Engaging in regular conversation with the victim also helped her in erasing the bad
memories. The degree program of nursing had taught me regarding how to gain insight into
the thought process of an individual and how to heal the wounds of the patient.

5REFLECTIVE ESSAY ON FAMILY VIOLENCE
References:
Berhane, Y. (2017). Ending Domestic violence against women in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian
Journal of Health Development (EJHD), 18(3).
Berns, N. S. (2017). Framing the victim: Domestic violence, media, and social problems.
Routledge.
Cattaneo, L. B., & Goodman, L. A. (2015). What is empowerment anyway? A model for
domestic violence practice, research, and evaluation. Psychology of Violence, 5(1),
84.
Childress, S., Gioia, D., & Campbell, J. C. (2018). Women’s strategies for coping with the
impacts of domestic violence in Kyrgyzstan: A grounded theory study. Social work in
health care, 57(3), 164-189.
Johnson, M. P. (2016). Confl ict and Control: Symmetry and Asymmetry in Domestic
Violence. In Couples in conflict (pp. 125-134). Routledge.
Osofsky, J. D. (2018). Commentary: Understanding the impact of domestic violence on
children, recognizing strengths, and promoting resilience: reflections on Harold and
Sellers (2018). Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, 59(4), 403-404.
Pain, R. (2014). Everyday terrorism: Connecting domestic violence and global
terrorism. Progress in Human Geography, 38(4), 531-550.
Pearlman, D. N., Zierler, S., Gjelsvik, A., & Verhoek-Oftedahl, W. (2016). Neighborhood
environment, racial position, and risk of police-reported domestic violence: a
contextual analysis. Public health reports.