Identification of level of knowledge and awareness about child abuse and neglect working as medical personnel in Malatya

Aim: Child abuse and neglect is a public health problem as old as human history. Although its history is so old, interest in this subject started in the early 19th century. This concept, which was first introduced with the term "battered child", is used today with the term "child abuse". Material and Method: In this study, it was conducted to determine the knowledge and awareness levels of healthcare professionals who have an important role in the diagnosis of child abuse and neglect. The study was carried out with family health center employees working in Battalgazi district of Malatya Province and midwives nurses and physicians working in Malatya Training and Research Hospital Beydağı campus Pediatric and maternity emergency departments. The study was conducted between 25.02.2019-15.06.2019 after obtaining the necessary permissions. In the research, "Scale for Identification of Symptoms and Risks of Child Abuse and Neglect" form developed by Uysal (1998) was used as data collection tool. The data were evaluated in SPSS 22 and descriptive statistics were used in the evaluation. Results: The participants consist of 34.3% midwives, 48.6% nurses and 17.1% doctors. 98.1% of the participants said that they would notify when they encounter child abuse and neglect. ÇİİBRTYÖ overall scale score average 3.69 ±,34 species. Average score is above 3 points in all subscales. Conclusion: it is seen that the knowledge of health workers about child neglect nda buse is not sufficient and the education given during and after school education is insufficient. It is thought that increasing the lessons related to child abuse and neglect in terms of content and duration and standardizing and increasing the frequency of in-service trainings will contribute to their knowledge and awareness levels. Key Words: Child, Child Abuse and Neglect, Health Workers, Knowledge Level, Attitude, Behaviour