Abstract:

The World Health Organization (WHO) describes child abuse, “Exposure to all kinds of attitudes and behaviors including commercial advertising or any other form of influence that may cause any physical and/or emotional, sexual, negligence or neglect to cause adverse effects on the health, growth and development of children.” 25% of the children aged 7-18 were neglected, physical abuse was seen 43%, emotional abuse was 51% and sexual abuse was 3%. However, 4.2% of children 6-14 and 28% of children 15-17 were to be exposed to financial abuse. In addition, poor financial situation is consisted to be among the most important factors inducing child abuse. Child abuse is considered a complex event with all its dimensions including the etiology, diagnosis and treatment; protecting the children from abuse is essential and a multidisciplinary team of professionals during early diagnosis and treatment is needed. Pediatric nurses in the team play a significant role in; recognizing the signs of abuse, early identification of the children likely to be exposed to maltreatment, directing them to the appropriate centers and providing them with the treatment/rehabilitation.

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