Many workers dealing directly with issues surrounding family and domestic violence receive just hours of specific training on how to handle it, or no teaching at all, an inquiry has been told.
The deficits came to light during a parliamentary inquiry into links between domestic violence and suicide, held in Melbourne on Thursday.
Training for nurses was confined to online modules depending on their health service, and was also lacking for midwives, representatives for the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation told the MPs.
"They call them online essential modules, that you'll have to do, but it isn't ... a core component", speaker Alana Ginnivan said.
"It's touched on as part of the social determinants of health, but it's not adequately addressed."
