Module Components

• Overview

Topics

• Definitions
• Why Do Home Visits
• How to Conduct Home Visits

Nurs 467 - Public Health Nursing

Module 7: Home Visiting

WHY DO HOME VISITS

Public health nurses work with families in a variety of community-based settings, such as health departments, community clinics, schools, workplaces and offices.  Public health nurses also have a long-standing tradition of providing services to families in their homes. While the major goal of the home visit is to bring the services to the family, the home visit is more than just an alternative setting for the services. The home visit is itself an intervention.

Through home visits, “the nurse is able to complete a more accurate assessment of family structure, the home environment and the behaviors of the family members in that environment. Home visits also provide opportunities to identify both barriers and supports for reaching family health promotion goals” (Stanhope and Lancaster, 2014).

GOALS OF HOME VISITING

The goals of a home visit are to:

• Promote support systems
• Promote care of the client with illness or disability
• Encourage growth and development
• Educate about health promotion and illness prevention
• Strengthen family functioning
• Promote a health environment

Remember that the client is in charge during home visits (the nurse is a guest), and goals can best be met if the goals are a reflection of what the client wants (i.e. mutually agreed upon).

The Nurse Family Partnership is an evidenced based home visiting program that uses a client-centered, solution-focused approach that focuses on the needs and wants of the client to solve their problems. Read about the incredible outcomes that Nurse Family Partnership programs have obtained. A secondary goal of this preventative approach is to reduce health and social services costs. Learn about the nurses role in helping first—time moms via the Nurse Family Partnership. Hear first-hand how Nurse Family Partnership helped a young woman, Jennifer, and her son.

The Baltimore City Health Department offers a variety of home visiting programs, including Nurse-Family Partnership, to pregnant women. Click here to see the available programs.