Clinician–Patient Communication About Domestic Violence

To describe how clinicians communicate with patients about domestic violence, researchers reviewed audiotapes of emergency department visits. The tapes had been recorded during a randomized clinical trial of a self-administered screening tool that alerted physicians to health risks, including domestic violence.

Clinicians (76 physicians; 4 nurse practitioners) had domestic violence discussions in 293 audiotaped nonemergent visits by women; the patient disclosed domestic violence to the clinician in 77 (26%) of those visits. Clinicians usually asked about domestic violence in a perfunctory manner during the social history as part of a list of risk factors. Patients were more likely to disclose abuse when the clinician probed for it, created o…