Domestic Violence: Trauma-Informed Assessment, Care, and Documentation for EMS

Course overview

This course provides Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics with a comprehensive overview of recognizing, assessing, and managing domestic violence in the prehospital setting using a trauma-informed approach.Participants will learn to identify common clinical indicators and red flags of intimate partner violence, including injury patterns, behavioral cues, and high-risk presentations such as strangulation, head injury indicators, and pregnancy-related risk considerations. The course emphasizes trauma-informed assessment, patient-centered communication, accurate documentation, and clinical decision-making within the EMS scope of practice. Content is tailored to the prehospital environment and supports ethical care, patient safety, effective communication and handoff with receiving facilities, and community partners, and appropriate referral within Florida EMS standards.