Abstract:
Background: Child abuse is common in Sri Lankan context. Nurse is a member of the
healthcare team who manages the victimized children admitted to paediatric wards. Therefore,
nurses should have adequate knowledge on child abuse, medico-legal and ethical duties towards
an abused child and it is important for better management and care. However, this aspect has
not been explored adequately worldwide.
Objectives: To identify the knowledge on child abuse, medico-legal duties on child abuse and
ethical duties on abused children among paediatric nurses in a major children’s hospital in
Sri Lanka.
Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted using randomly selected sample of
registered nursing officers (n=392) from Lady Ridgeway Hospital (LRH), Colombo. The data
were collected using a self-prepared, pre-tested, self-administered questionnaire. Data were
analysed using the descriptive statistics and Chi-square test with SPSS version 25.0. Knowledge
scores including the knowledge on child abuse, medico-legal duties and ethical duties on child
abuse and the overall score were calculated. Overall score was divided into three categories of
knowledge as low (0-20), moderate (21-40) and high (41-61).
Results: Majority of paediatric nursing officers were Sinhalese (99.7%) and Buddhist (97.4%).
Of the participants, 41.3% were below thirty years of age. Mean (SD) overall knowledge score
was 37.23 (±6.96). Further, knowledge on child abuse, knowledge on medico-legal duties and
ethical duties were 12.76 (±2.90), 16.49 (±4.14) and 7.98 (±1.77), respectively. Majority
(59.7%, n=234) of nurses had high level of knowledge while 37.5% (n=147) had moderate level
of knowledge. Prior training on medico-legal and ethical duties towards child abuse (p=0.038)
and gender (p=0.034) had significant associations with the overall knowledge on child abuse.
Conclusions: Most of the pediatric nursing officers in LRH had moderate level of knowledge
on child abuse, related medico-legal and ethical duties on child abuse. The level of knowledge
was associated with the prior training and gender. All the nurses should have high level of
knowledge to enhance the care and rehabilitation of abused child. Therefore, further continuous
training is recommended.
