# Strengthening Health Care Professionals’ Collaborative Responses to Women Experiencing Intimate Partner Violence in Pregnancy: Protocol for an Exploratory Mixed Methods Study

## TL;DR

This study aims to improve how healthcare professionals work together to support pregnant women experiencing intimate partner violence through a new educational program.

## Contribution

The study introduces a simulation-based, interprofessional education intervention to enhance collaborative responses to IPV during pregnancy.

## Key findings

- The study will explore the experiences of women and healthcare professionals to inform the educational program.
- Workshops will be evaluated using a pretest-posttest design to assess their impact on participants.
- The research will provide insights into improving interdisciplinary collaboration in addressing IPV during pregnancy.

## Abstract

Effective collaborative practice among health care professionals is crucial for addressing intimate partner violence (IPV) during pregnancy. Therefore, the development and evaluation of an evidence-based intervention for health care professionals is required to work toward meeting the key priorities of the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children 2022‐2032. The consistency, modality, and effectiveness of IPV-focused education vary, and some midwives lack the confidence to respond effectively to disclosures, often due to limited knowledge, education, and skills. This issue is further amplified in interdisciplinary settings, where a lack of cohesiveness and collaboration can negatively impact the experience for pregnant women seeking or needing support.

The objective of this study is to design, implement, and evaluate an evidence-informed, simulation-based, interprofessional education intervention to improve health care professionals’ collaborative response to IPV disclosures during the perinatal period in the South Australian maternity health care sector.

This study adopts an exploratory mixed methods research design with 3 key phases. Phase 1 explores the experiences of women with lived experience of IPV in pregnancy (a minimum of 9 participants), and health care professionals providing perinatal care (4‐8 participants in approximately 4‐8 focus group offerings). The data will inform the development of the educational program. Phase 3 focuses on the evaluation of the intervention to determine the perceived impact. There will be several offerings of the workshops to capture a minimum of 42 health professional participants.

Qualitative data will be collected first from interviews with women with lived experience of IPV in the perinatal period and focus groups with health professionals who have provided care across that context. Phase 3 comprises quantitative survey data through a single-group quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design to determine the perceived impact of the workshop.

This study aims to provide insights into the effectiveness of educational interventions designed to enhance collaboration within interdisciplinary teams in the context of IPV.