STAT May 22, 2023
I once saw a patient who came to the emergency room with injuries that were clearly related to domestic violence. Instead of offering a compassionate ear and a blanket to cover her exposed body after an assault, her intake nurse rushed through a checklist intended to screen her for social needs. While facing the computer screen, the nurse asked the patient a series of sensitive questions, including one about whether she had experienced domestic violence. The patient, feeling put off by the nurse’s impersonal manner, denied having ever experienced any abuse.
In recent years, primary care providers like me have started to realize that we need to ask patients about all manner of topics, including domestic violence and whether they...
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