The experience of paediatric residents participating in a child protection rotation: A qualitative study.

BACKGROUND

Practitioners working in the field of child maltreatment are at risk for vicarious traumatization. For Canadian paediatric residents, exposure to child abuse during training is limited.

OBJECTIVE

To explore how paediatric residents experience a mandatory rotation within a hospital-based child protection team (CPT) from an emotional and professional development standpoint.

METHOD: Eight paediatric residents were interviewed following their CPT rotation and transcripts were analyzed using a phenomenological approach. Exemplar quotes were then highlighted.

RESULTS

FOUR MAJOR THEMES WERE IDENTIFIED: baseline experiences; individual resident factors; intrinsic CPT rotation factors; and overall rotation assessment. The themes and their subthemes were used to inform a conceptual model of residents' experiences.

CONCLUSIONS

The knowledge provided through residents' accounts can be applied to strengthen future educational opportunities in the field of child maltreatment and offer insight to help guide the development of support systems and debriefing processes that are important in this challenging field.