Long-term Home Visiting with Vulnerable, Young Mothers: Impacts on Public Health Nurses

Abstract

<p>The Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) is a targeted, nurse home visitation program for young, low-income, first time mothers. While the effectiveness of the NFP has been established in the context of the US, and is currently being evaluated in the Canadian public health care system, little has been done to document how work of this nature influences or impacts public health nurses (PHNs), an essential component of this program delivery model, on both professional and personal levels. This qualitative interpretive descriptive study explored PHNs’ experiences of long-term home visiting a targeted population of young, vulnerable mothers in a Canadian NFP program. The study was conducted in two phases beginning with a secondary analysis of five focus groups conducted with public health nurses (N = 6) who delivered the NFP intervention as part of the feasibility and acceptability pilot in Hamilton, Ontario. This was followed by further exploration of identified themes and a practice, problem and needs analysis through individual, semi-structured interviews with the original focus group participants and all PHNs who have since delivered the NFP (N =10). Relationships formed with clients, the NFP program and support of NFP colleagues were rewarding factors while workload and workplace factors were significant contributors to stress. The study findings have implications for the identification of strategies to minimize staff turnover, PHN burnout, secondary traumatic stress and compassion fatigue, and improve program delivery.</p>