Background:

Nurses can meet women who have been victims of abuse anywhere in the healthcare. Healthcare providers have a responsibility to these women, and it requires a broad range of skills to identify the women and thus be able to help them. It is important to see all patients as unique individuals and provide good care to maintain their specific needs. This paper was done to increase the understanding of nurses' experiences in the encounter with the battered woman.

Aim:

The aim of this study was to illustrate how nurses experience the encounter with the battered woman.

Method:

Literature review with both qualitative and quantitative studies. Nine articles were chosen to be read, reviewed and analyzed.

Results:

Three themes and ten subthemes appeared. The nurse’s experience of the encounter with battered woman resulted in the following themes, the nurse's feelings in the encounter, the nurse's experience of the abused woman and the nurse's experience of their own profession.

Conclusion:

The results show that the encounter is a lack of knowledge within the studied subject. It appears that nurses' experiences in meeting with the battered woman are influenced by both personal and professional experience, knowledge and training, and an empathetic understanding of her