Conceptualizing Physicians' Roles in Addressing Intimate Partner Violence: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Resources for Canadian Physicians

Violence Against Women. 2023 Jul;29(9):1640-1669. doi: 10.1177/10778012221114922. Epub 2022 Aug 22.

Abstract

Resources addressing intimate partner violence (IPV) play a role in shaping how physicians conceptualize and perform their roles in caring for affected patients. This study combines environmental scanning with critical discourse analysis (CDA) to parse how roles of physicians were represented in 28 education materials and policy documents about IPV, taking the Canadian training milieu as an example. We developed a cyclical model of three core physician roles in addressing IPV-learning about IPV, identifying patients experiencing IPV, and responding to patients' disclosures of IPV. The construction of these physician roles is suggestive of an ongoing process of medicalization of IPV.

Keywords: intimate partner violence; medical education; medicalization.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Canada
  • Disclosure
  • Humans
  • Intimate Partner Violence*
  • Physician's Role
  • Physicians*

Grants and funding