Multidisciplinary collaboration reporting child abuse: A grounded theory study

Abstract

Background The complexity of reporting child abuse requires multidisciplinary collaboration The dynamics of a mulidisciplinary team in reporting child abuse which begins the process of child protection remains unclear Objective To explore the experiences and perspectives of professionals working with other disciplines when reporting child abuse Design A qualitative study with grounded theory was used Setting Participants were recruited from hospitals the Department of Child Welfare and schools in Taiwan Participants Twenty-one professionals from four disciplines agreed to participate The purposive sample Included 5 physicians 5 nurses 6 social workers and 5 teachers Method Individual interviews were conducted to explore the experiences in reporting child abuse of a purposive sample of 21 professionals including physicians nurses social workers and teachers Transcripts were analyzed using I pounded theory approach Categorical themes were developed that reflected reporters experiences and perspectives in reporting child abuse Results The professionals involved in reported child abuse are described as participants in a relay race Four themes emerged from the interviews running the relay race of child protection reporters as runners with expectations of runners characteristics and the order of runners carrying the baton of a mandatory report described using baton characteristics while running in space and time and team chemistry including trust of and communication with teammates Systems that encourage and promote team building and collaboration among child abuse reporters are needed Conclusion Success in the race to report child abuse across professional disciplines includes runners skills speed a light and easy to carry baton and team chemistry As a team of child abuse reporters when performance is enhanced by practice the team s success will be measured as victories in child protection The paradigm of individual disciplines developing their own goals designing their own I raining and practicing within their own regimen needs to be reframed (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved

Department

Nursing

Publication Date

12-1-2010

Journal Title

International Journal of Nursing Studies

Publisher

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2010.05.007

Document Type

Article

Rights

© 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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