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The Abuse Assessment Screen, Severity of Violence Against Women Scales, and Appraisal of Violent Situations scales were translated into versions for women originating from Brazil, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. The procedure of back translation was chosen as the most reliable method for translation of these three instruments. The translated instruments were used to screen women for abuse during pregnancy and to determine the prevalence and severity of that abuse. This article discusses the translation process and illustrate with versions of the instruments for use with pregnant women from Puerto Rico.

Screening for abuse at every healthcare visit is a standard of practice promulgated by many healthcare professional organizations. The need for such screening is underscored by reports of homicide as a leading cause of maternal mortality during pregnancy and the first year of the baby's life in Massachusetts and Maryland, and by the calculation of the costs of intimate partner violence in the United States. This article discusses how we addressed problems that arose in implementing screening for abuse in 13 different sites as a part of a clinical nursing research project. Engaging in clinical nursing research necessitates close relationships with clinical agencies and their staff members. This often means establishing and maintaining relationships with all nurses caring for patients in each clinical unit serving as a study site. For research on abuse during pregnancy, our study team members were engaged in interactions with prenatal care providers at 13 different study sites. Central to the study was implementing use of a standardized abuse screening tool, the Abuse Assessment Screen, at each study site. This article also describes the lessons we learned in attempting to implement such a large scale change in clinical practice.

Nurses have served with distinction in wartime since Florence Nightingale went to the Crimea. Women often accompanied their husbands to battle during the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, caring for the sick and wounded. Although not officially given officer status until 1920, Army nurses served in the Spanish-American War and World War I. As officers, thousands of nurses served in subsequent wars, distinguishing themselves by their heroism, devotion to duty, and sheer tenacity of spirit.