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Out-of-hospital assessment and management of rape survivors by pre-hospital emergency care providers in the Western Cape
South African incidence of rape ranks amongst the highest worldwide. No direct policy exists for the emergency care provider management of rape victims in the pre-hospital setting. The pre-hospital exposure to rape cases is unknown as its health information system is not gender-based violence sensit...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Division of Emergency Medicine
2016
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| _version_ | 1867613206704291840 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Gihwala, Raina Tara |
| author2 | Martin, Lorna J |
| author_browse | Gihwala, Raina Tara Martin, Lorna J |
| author_facet | Martin, Lorna J Gihwala, Raina Tara |
| author_sort | Gihwala, Raina Tara |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | South African incidence of rape ranks amongst the highest worldwide. No direct policy exists for the emergency care provider management of rape victims in the pre-hospital setting. The pre-hospital exposure to rape cases is unknown as its health information system is not gender-based violence sensitive. In the absence of a clearly defined protocol, indiscretion in the emergency care treatment of rape victims remains undocumented. As a particularly vulnerable group globally, victims of rape are deserving of focused intervention. A qualitative, descriptive approach guided the research in which nine semi-structured voluntary interviews were held with emergency care providers, forensic medical practitioners and emergency consultants. Through a critical theory lens thematic content analysis was employed. University of Cape Town ethics approval was attained. The study found that pre-hospital providers lack knowledge and skills of rape victim identification and management but are desirous of evidence-informed guidelines for treatment and referral in a multidisciplinary approach. Educational and policy deficiencies are documented. The recommendations support a community of practice that is mutually inclusive of specialist rape-care centres, emergency department and pre-hospital providers in the interest of forensic emergency medicine. Due regard must be had for needs of practitioners at risk of vicarious traumatization from sexual assault management. Transformative curricula and responsive clinical guidelines are likely to redress any complicity of the health sector non-response to rape/sexual assault. This study is likely to benefit emergency care regulators, educators and researchers whose professional interest is to promote responsivity of the health system to rape. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/21186 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:32:27.580Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publishDateRange | 2016 |
| publishDateSort | 2016 |
| publisher | Division of Emergency Medicine |
| publisherStr | Division of Emergency Medicine |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/21186 Out-of-hospital assessment and management of rape survivors by pre-hospital emergency care providers in the Western Cape Gihwala, Raina Tara Martin, Lorna J Naido, Navindhra Emergency Medicine Rape Emergency Care provider emergency medical services sexual assault clinical management guidelines critical theory South African incidence of rape ranks amongst the highest worldwide. No direct policy exists for the emergency care provider management of rape victims in the pre-hospital setting. The pre-hospital exposure to rape cases is unknown as its health information system is not gender-based violence sensitive. In the absence of a clearly defined protocol, indiscretion in the emergency care treatment of rape victims remains undocumented. As a particularly vulnerable group globally, victims of rape are deserving of focused intervention. A qualitative, descriptive approach guided the research in which nine semi-structured voluntary interviews were held with emergency care providers, forensic medical practitioners and emergency consultants. Through a critical theory lens thematic content analysis was employed. University of Cape Town ethics approval was attained. The study found that pre-hospital providers lack knowledge and skills of rape victim identification and management but are desirous of evidence-informed guidelines for treatment and referral in a multidisciplinary approach. Educational and policy deficiencies are documented. The recommendations support a community of practice that is mutually inclusive of specialist rape-care centres, emergency department and pre-hospital providers in the interest of forensic emergency medicine. Due regard must be had for needs of practitioners at risk of vicarious traumatization from sexual assault management. Transformative curricula and responsive clinical guidelines are likely to redress any complicity of the health sector non-response to rape/sexual assault. This study is likely to benefit emergency care regulators, educators and researchers whose professional interest is to promote responsivity of the health system to rape. 2016-08-11T10:17:18Z 2016-08-11T10:17:18Z 2016 Master Thesis Masters MSc (Med) http://hdl.handle.net/11427/21186 eng application/pdf Division of Emergency Medicine Faculty of Health Sciences University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | Emergency Medicine Rape Emergency Care provider emergency medical services sexual assault clinical management guidelines critical theory Gihwala, Raina Tara Out-of-hospital assessment and management of rape survivors by pre-hospital emergency care providers in the Western Cape |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | Out-of-hospital assessment and management of rape survivors by pre-hospital emergency care providers in the Western Cape |
| title_full | Out-of-hospital assessment and management of rape survivors by pre-hospital emergency care providers in the Western Cape |
| title_fullStr | Out-of-hospital assessment and management of rape survivors by pre-hospital emergency care providers in the Western Cape |
| title_full_unstemmed | Out-of-hospital assessment and management of rape survivors by pre-hospital emergency care providers in the Western Cape |
| title_short | Out-of-hospital assessment and management of rape survivors by pre-hospital emergency care providers in the Western Cape |
| title_sort | out of hospital assessment and management of rape survivors by pre hospital emergency care providers in the western cape |
| topic | Emergency Medicine Rape Emergency Care provider emergency medical services sexual assault clinical management guidelines critical theory |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/21186 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT gihwalarainatara outofhospitalassessmentandmanagementofrapesurvivorsbyprehospitalemergencycareprovidersinthewesterncape |