Studying the level of awareness for child abuse and neglect of Agroup of pre-school teachers and A group of health professionals in Eskişehir

Aim: The aim of this study was to examine the level of knowledge and awareness of the nurses and doctors working in the pediatrics department , pre-school teachers about symptoms and risks of child abuse and neglect. Methods: This study was conducted in Educational Institutions providing pre-school education and training affiliated to Odunpazarı District National Education Directorate and in The Health Traning and Research Center of Eskişehir Osmangazi University Pediatric Sciences between September, 2017 and March, 2018. 71 nurses, 32 doctors and 204 teachers attented to the research. The data were collected with Socio Demographic Data Sheet and the Scale for Diagnosis of Symptoms and Risks of Child Abuse and Neglect. SSPS for Windows 22.0 programme was used. Results: %49,3 of nurses,%68,8 of doctors and %67,2 of teachers participating in the survey were trained in child abuse and neglect; however, when faced with the case, %54,9 of nurses, %28,1 of doctors and %44,1 of teachers feel incompetent in deciding. In the case of child neglect and abuse, %35,5 of nurses, %21,1 of doctors and %76,6 of teachers stated that they mostly encountered with emotional abuse. Among the subgroups in the scale, the highest mean points were recorded by nurses(x=3,55±0,31) and teachers (x=3,59±0,33) in 'Physical Symptoms of Child Abuse and Neglect' and by doctors(x=3,62±0,34) in 'Symptoms of Child Neglect and Abuse'. Conclusion: In this study, nurses, doctors and teachers were found to have not enough levels of diagnosing signs and risks of child abuse and neglect according to the answers given to general scale items.