525 N. Wolfe Street | Baltimore, MD 21205 | 410.955.7548
Summer 2006
Volume IV, Issue II
Special Issue: Nursing Research With an Impact
Cover photo by
Chris Hartlove
Feature: Wounded Hearts, Broken Lives | Next Section >
Assessment Research
It was that realization back in the late 1970s that led Campbell to develop one of the most widespread assessment tools used today to gauge the risk of intimate partner homicide.
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Assessment Research |
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Name:
Jacquelyn C. Campbell, PhD, RN, FAAN |
throughout the U.S. and Canada, as well as in Taiwan, Australia, and
New Zealand. Current research focuses on intervention and prevention
strategies. "Everywhere you look there are things happening," says
Campbell. "I am proud to have played some small part." inflammatory
cytokines. Campbell was working as a nurse in an inner city high school in Dayton, Ohio, when she met a bright, young girl named Annie, pregnant by her boyfriend, Tyrone. Campbell supported the couple in their decision to keep the baby, Tyree. The couple even named her the child's godmother. She kept in touch with the family for eight years. All seemed well. Then Tyrone killed Annie. Campbell was devastated. She had never suspected intimate partner abuse.
Hoping to avoid such future tragedies, Campbell developed a tool known as the Danger Assessment, which is now used throughout the U.S., Canada, and the world, and is part of the screening that Hopkins nurses use at clinics such as the House of Ruth Maryland.
In addition to taking a medical history, nurses ask women to mark on a calendar dates of past abuse. Incidents, ranked from least to most severe, include: slapping and pushing; punching, kicking, bruises; "beating up," which means burns, broken bones and miscarriage; threat to use a weapon; and, finally, use of a weapon with wounds. This gives social workers and nurses an indication of those most in need of shelter: those at risk of being killed.
Assistant professor Daniel J. Sheridan, PhD, RN, CNS, FAAN, the son of a police officer and pioneer in the field of forensic nursing, has worked with Campbell to refine a similar assessment tool, called HARASS, to be used when women leave abusive situations. That, he says, is the time when women are most at risk. Sheridan recently received a $20,000 grant to test a shorter version of the self-reporting questionnaire, which will be easier to use in hospitals, emergency rooms, and shelters.
