Student Presenter(s): Bairavi Maheswaran and Jaspreet Kaur
Faculty Mentor: Joerg Leheste
School/College: Osteopathic Medicine, Old Westbury

Domestic Violence has been a prevalent issue in recent years and with the social isolation due to the pandemic cases have increased. During the pandemic, domestic violence cases in the United States increased by 8.1% and in 2021, the NYPD has stated around 721 domestic violence cases, 17.2% of which led to homicides. However, as cases are increasing, there is a lack of health, screening, and support services for domestic violence patients in emergency and urgent care settings. We deduced through analyzing statistical data surrounding domestic violence post-pandemic, research based on medical education, and analysis of accreditation bodies for medical curriculum in the United States; that healthcare students and professionals are inadequately trained for treating and interviewing domestic violence patients. There is a lack of curriculum within our pre-clinical medical education and residency programs on how to approach, screen for, and garner trust with a domestic violence patient, hence the severity of these patients is often overlooked and not cared for. Further, this creates a lack of competency, confidence, and comfortability in our physicians and students dealing with such sensitive topics. Hence our study aims to showcase these barriers for domestic violence patients, and further implement an educational intervention to provide healthcare students with the necessary coursework they need to instill care for these patients.