Assessing the need for child-care health consultants

This study surveyed health and safety needs of child-care programs; examined the perceptions of directors, the person identified as being responsible for a program, concerning health consultation; and determined how directors would secure funds to pay for consultative services. The survey was conducted in a state without mandates for child-care health consultation and minimal access to consultants. The researchers designed and pilot-tested a Child Care Health and Safety Survey. Working with a task group of statewide child health experts, the researchers revised the survey and mailed it to a random sample of child-care programs. Twenty-two Head Start Programs, 122 licensed child-care centers, and 116 family child-care homes participated, representing a return rate of 73, 36, and 30%, respectively. The majority of programs expressed interest in child-care health consultation offered for free or fee-based. Directors identified reasonable means of obtaining funds to support consultation. All programs had needs related to supporting health practices in their settings, provision of health services for staff, and health screening for children. Public health nurses, specially trained to advise child care, are well positioned to offer consultation. Systems of health consultation may be accepted as fee-for-service arrangements, supporting sustainability.     

The role of child health nurses in enhancing mothering know-how

Supporting early parenting and promoting family health is an important aspect of contemporary child health nursing in Australia. Recent studies suggest that within a service climate that increasingly funds targeted, population-based needs rather than universal needs, child health nurses are concerned about maintaining individual nurse-client relationships, particularly with individual families. There is however, limited evidence available to use in response to these concerns. In this paper the way a group of middle-class mothers of infants, who, in today's health service climate, may not be a target group for health services, develop their caregiving know-how, is discussed. The findings presented suggest that both expert and lay knowledge have a part to play in supporting women in their early mothering. Women such as these, in essence, need a clearing-house to help them sift through the overwhelming information they access, respond to, and turn into everyday practices that work. Well placed child health nursing services may achieve this. While there is significant support for this claim in the literature, mechanisms for effective support remains the challenge. A key may be found in nurses focusing on the promotion of communicative or interactive health literacy as an outcome of their programs.     

School nurse assessment of primary school children: Analysis of data from the school entrant health questionnaire

Edgecombe GA, Avant KC, Griffin P, Corneille K. International Journal of Nursing Practice 1998; 4: 40–50
School nurse assessment of primary school children: Analysis of data from the school entrant health questionnaire
The School Entrant Health Questionnaire (SEHQ) has been used by the School Nursing Program in Victoria since April, 1997. The SEHQ assists school nurses in developing a health profile of primary grade children and in discriminating between children with problems and children without problems. The SEHQ assesses children in 11 domains: general health, medications, immunisations, dental health, speech/language, hearing, vision, disabilities, general development, behaviour and emotional well-being, and family stress. The SEHQ was found to be reliable and valid, and to provide an excellent means of distinguishing between students who had problems and needed intervention and those who did not. This paper presents an analysis of data from the first testing of the SEHQ.     

Nurses' first encounters with parents of new-born children--public health nurses' views of a good meeting

? The nurse’s view of the first meeting with parents of new‐born children may have consequences for the quality of future contact. A good start will lay a solid foundation for a lasting relationship, and have an affect on the nurse’s work to support parents and children and to promote health. We do not know what nurses mean by a ‘good meeting’. ? The aim of this study was to discover how nurses view the first meeting as a general preventive measure aimed at all parents and their new‐born children. ? Four focus groups interviews were held with nurses from different primary health care areas in the county of Skåne, southernmost Sweden. ? Analysis of the content in the transcribed interview texts disclosed eight subcategories: good contact/reciprocal relationship; willingness to listen; guest/equal roles; time/peace and quiet; the family in its environment; socio‐cultural aspects; confirmation/support; and individual advice. ? Three categories were established: creating trust; creating a supportive climate; and creating a picture of the family’s life situation. ? The home visit was seen as an important way to establish trust and obtain a picture of the family’s life situation, which was in turn essential for creating a supportive climate.     

Mothers' decision-making processes regarding health care for their children

This research study explored mothers' decision-making processes regarding health care for their children. Identifying how decisions are made by mothers about health care for their children will assist health care professionals to be appropriate advocates for mothers, to improve quality of life, and to contain costs of health care for children. A sample of 114 rural mothers (51 with one child, 63 with more than one child) completed questionnaires identifying demographics, social support, client and professional interaction elements, self-determinism, competence in problem-solving skills, and relationships to responses to health care scenarios. Qualitative data were also gathered by structured in-depth interviews of 7 subjects. ANOVA, correlations, and factor analysis were completed to analyze data. Most of the mothers' decisions were based on the perceived degree of seriousness, mother's degree of fear of the child's condition, attitude of the health care provider, previous experience with the situation, and social support for the mother. There were no significant differences in decision-making processes by first time mothers and by mothers with more than one child. Implications include teaching mothers assessment skills to identify serious versus nonserious situations and to utilize other social supports.     

Child protection and public health: nurses' responsibilities

BACKGROUND: Health care workers have been recognized as having a key role in the protection and care of Scotland's children, particularly in respect of identification and detection of child abuse. Nurses, especially health visitors, are often the first professionals to suspect that child abuse has taken place. While previous research has found that health visitors have primarily perceived their role as that of providing support and advice to vulnerable families, there are pressures on them to fulfil a more narrow surveillance role. Concurrent with a lack of clarity about the role of health visitors in child protection, there has been increasing recognition that other nurses can also make an important contribution, including those who do not work directly with children. AIMS: The aim of the study was to explore nurses' understanding of their professional responsibilities in relation to child protection, and the potential for nurses to be involved in the protection of children from abuse. METHODS: A qualitative interview-based design was used, and 99 nurses working in an National Health Service trust in a Scottish city were interviewed, either individually or in groups, about their professional involvements in child protection issues. Interview data were subjected to thematic analysis. FINDINGS: There was lack of consensus among interviewees about the nursing remit in child protection issues, particularly with respect to the extent to which nurses should actively seek to detect cases of child abuse. An emphasis on identification and detection was not easily accepted by many nurses, and was perceived by some to be a change from their more traditional role of supporting families, as well as being potentially in conflict with some public health responsibilities. CONCLUSION: In spite of the perception of some nurses that there is a sharp divide between child protection work and public health interventions, many of the child protection roles identified by nurses, such as supporting families, parenting education and service development, are clearly within the ambit of contemporary notions of public health. Furthermore, it is clear that there is a role in child protection for a much wider group of nurses than health visitors.     

Promoting effective interventions for neglected health conditions in developing countries

The United Nations' millennium development project has set global priorities for the mobilization and allocation of resources to the developing world until 2015. However, many health conditions are currently excluded from this global marshal plan and may remain so for the next decade because they do not satisfy the conventional criteria for high priority status. This paper presents an example of how indigenous private-public partnerships can play an effective role in stimulating national initiatives for health interventions for neglected but significant conditions where government capacity or external donor support is limited or lacking.     

Promoting effective interventions for neglected health conditions in developing countries

The United Nations' millennium development project has set global priorities for the mobilization and allocation of resources to the developing world until 2015. However, many health conditions are currently excluded from this global marshal plan and may remain so for the next decade because they do not satisfy the conventional criteria for high priority status. This paper presents an example of how indigenous private-public partnerships can play an effective role in stimulating national initiatives for health interventions for neglected but significant conditions where government capacity or external donor support is limited or lacking.     

个性化健康教育在产科临床护理中的应用

目的探讨个性化健康教育在产科临床护理中对孕产妇的影响。方法将100名孕产妇随机分为实验组和对照组,为实验组孕产妇制定个性化健康教育计划,对其在产前、产时、产后进行培训,对照组则接受常规健康教育培训,出院前比较2组保健知识、护理能力以及分娩方式。结果 2组在母婴保健知识、护理能力、剖宫产率方面比较,差异有统计学意义(P<0.05或P<0.01)。结论开展个性化健康教育能帮助孕产妇全面掌握保健知识,降低剖宫产率。     

Quality in child healthcare. The views of mothers and public health nurses

In child health promotion (CHP) programmes it is the public health nurse who is responsible for most of the work. However, the perspectives of the family and the staff must be identified in order to get a comprehensive picture of significant quality factors in child healthcare. One aim of this study was to assess the views of mothers and public health nurses concerning a CHP programme and the first home visit to parents of newborn children. Other aims were to compare mothers' and nurses' views of CHP programmes in relation to age, experience, structure of organization and urbanization, and mothers' views in relation to social position, health of the children, primi- or multipara, country of birth and urbanization. Two national postal questionnaires, one sent to the mothers (850), the other to public health nurses (291), yielded data for analysis. Both mothers' and public health nurses' views of what constitutes good child healthcare were found to concur with the official goals of child health promotion. Important quality indicators were said to be: kind treatment, competence, time, support, an all-round view, the individual perspective, and home visits to primipara parents.     

Evaluating content validity and test-retest reliability of the children's health risk behavior scale

OBJECTIVE: Describe the instrument development process and report the validity and reliability of the Children's Health Risk Behavior Scale (CHRBS), a scale designed to screen for health risk behaviors among youth aged 10-13 Years. METHODS: Domain identification and item generation using the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and testing relevance and test-retest reliability among a target audience sample of 77 fifth graders in their classrooms in two separate public school districts. RESULTS: Youth performed their tasks as expert item reviewers effectively. Twenty-one items comprise the CHRBS with a reading level determined to be at the third grade. CONCLUSIONS: We have developed a reliable and valid measure to assess late elementary youth's participation in health risk behavior.