Presenters

Sami JohnsonFollow

Disciplines

Nursing

Abstract (300 words maximum)

Background: Human trafficking victims have restricted contact with others, leaving emergency department healthcare workers as their only links to the outside world. These healthcare workers must be educated, and screenings need to be utilized to identify and care for these victims. Objective: This study was created to discover what the best training and actions are for emergency department healthcare workers when identifying and treating human trafficking victims. Method: Research was conducted through PubMed, CINAHL, and MEDLINE. The frequently used phrases to find journals include "human trafficking" and "emergency department". Articles were excluded if they were not written in the English language and if they were published before the year of 2017. Results: Six articles were selected that exhibited different procedures and approaches for emergency healthcare department workers to use when interacting with trafficking victims. These evidence-based strategies involved educating emergency department healthcare workers about human trafficking and the development, implementation, and utilization of a human trafficking screening tool. The application of these methods was shown to help increase emergency department healthcare workers' knowledge of human trafficking and the positive identification of its victims, and result in the creation and use of a human trafficking screening tool. Conclusion: There are several evidence-based interventions that can be executed to help increase the identification and treatment of human trafficking victims by emergency department healthcare workers. For this project, the intervention of educating emergency department healthcare workers on the identification and care of human trafficking victims will be implemented. The effectiveness of this intervention will be assessed through a ten-question assessment about the training and its contents that the trainee will take after they receive the education.

Keywords: Human trafficking, sex trafficking, emergency department, education, human trafficking screening, victims, modern-day slavery, nurses, identification of human trafficking victims, treatment for human trafficking victims

Academic department under which the project should be listed

WCHHS - Nursing

Primary Investigator (PI) Name

Christie Emerson

Additional Faculty

Felicia Lanier, Nursing, flanier1@kennesaw.edu

Included in

Nursing Commons

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Human Trafficking Victims and the ED

Background: Human trafficking victims have restricted contact with others, leaving emergency department healthcare workers as their only links to the outside world. These healthcare workers must be educated, and screenings need to be utilized to identify and care for these victims. Objective: This study was created to discover what the best training and actions are for emergency department healthcare workers when identifying and treating human trafficking victims. Method: Research was conducted through PubMed, CINAHL, and MEDLINE. The frequently used phrases to find journals include "human trafficking" and "emergency department". Articles were excluded if they were not written in the English language and if they were published before the year of 2017. Results: Six articles were selected that exhibited different procedures and approaches for emergency healthcare department workers to use when interacting with trafficking victims. These evidence-based strategies involved educating emergency department healthcare workers about human trafficking and the development, implementation, and utilization of a human trafficking screening tool. The application of these methods was shown to help increase emergency department healthcare workers' knowledge of human trafficking and the positive identification of its victims, and result in the creation and use of a human trafficking screening tool. Conclusion: There are several evidence-based interventions that can be executed to help increase the identification and treatment of human trafficking victims by emergency department healthcare workers. For this project, the intervention of educating emergency department healthcare workers on the identification and care of human trafficking victims will be implemented. The effectiveness of this intervention will be assessed through a ten-question assessment about the training and its contents that the trainee will take after they receive the education.

Keywords: Human trafficking, sex trafficking, emergency department, education, human trafficking screening, victims, modern-day slavery, nurses, identification of human trafficking victims, treatment for human trafficking victims