Question

A close friend of yours, a fellow classmate in her second year of nursing clinical, is a 27-year-old mother of a 6-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son. One Sunday morning after a late night study session reviewing together for an upcoming nursing examination, your friend calls your cell phone in hysterics. She is sobbing heavily, making it difficult to understand her at times. Her words are muffled and occasionally mumbled. She asks you to pick her up outside her church. While explaining that her boyfriend beat her and that she is concerned for her own and her children’s safety, her call is abruptly ended with a high-pitched scream on your friend’s end. You call another classmate, and the two of you and the classmate’s husband drive to the church parking lot. When you arrive, you are startled by the appearance of your friend. Her face is severely beaten and bloody. Both eyes are blackened, and her nose and jaw are severely swollen. Your friend’s boyfriend is also at the church. He is obviously angry and upset to see you. He tells you to go home, that this is between him and your friend, and there is no need for you to get involved. You notice the couple’s two children cowering near the church steps. The boyfriend keeps yelling at your beaten friend that she has shamed him for the last time; that he won’t put up with any more of her stuck-up, “educated airs.” Your friend tells you to go home, that she has brought this upon herself and shouldn’t have involved you.

1. How would you respond in this situation? What follow-up plans would you make?
2. What behavior patterns between the victim and the abuser do you see in this case study?
3. What is your major concern for your friend if she chooses to remain in this abusive relationship?
4. What community resources would you refer your friend to and why?

Answer 1

#. Being a human ,I will not get afraid of her husband and will help my friend instead of his malbehaviour . As he has been brutally injuring my friend , I will have a conversation with my friend and will decide for putting a police case against him for beating her so badly .

#. The behaviour patterns shown by my friend are fear in her eyes , afraid of his husband , screaming for help . The behaviour patterns shown by his husband is abusive , arrogance , and anger .

#. The major concern for my friend if she chooses to remain in this abusive relationship is about the threat to her life and her childrens.

#. Some of the community resources that I will refer my friend to are :-

- counselors

- association for victims of abuse