Wednesday, July 21, 2004: 3:00 PM-4:30 PM | |||
Reaching High-Risk Families: Successes and Struggles in Translating Research into Practice | |||
| Learning Objective #1: Analyze factors that contribute to effective implementation and evaluation of home visitation programs for high risk families | |||
| Learning Objective #2: Explore the experiences of nurses with various levels of education and experience who work with high risk families | |||
| Research has clearly indicated that children from families with risk factors are more likely to have poor outcomes when compared to children in families without risk factors. Factors that put these children at risk include poverty, single parenting, linguistic isolation, limited parent education, parent mental illness and/or substance abuse, and limited social support. The greater the number of risk factors present in families, the more negative the outcomes are for children. Negative outcomes include developmental, behavioral, academic, and social problems. Often these problems persist into adulthood and are passed on from generation to generation. Research has demonstrated that home visiting by nurses can be effective in improving these outcomes such as increasing the spacing between pregnancies, increasing the rate of mother return to school, increasing maternal employment, improving maternal-child interaction, decreasing abuse and neglect, improving developmental quotients in children. However, translating this research into practice is challenging given the variety of intervention models and the complexity and chaos often present in these families. A multitude of issues must be addressed in order to design effective early intervention programs including coordination of services provided by various agencies, development of effective interventions based on family characteristics, education of professionals to work with high risk families, and evaluation of the effectiveness of interventions. This symposium will present research on several facets of home visitation for high risk families including: comparison of effectiveness of intervention models, methodological issues in evaluating family outcomes, factors that contribute to the success of community partnerships, education of students to work with diverse and disadvantaged families, and perceptions of nurses who care for high risk families. Methodological issues in the research related to interventions with high risk families are discussed throughout. | |||
| Organizer: | Gayle P. Olsen, RN, MS, C-PNP | ||
| A Community Partnership to Improve Services for High Risk Families: Factors that Contribute to Success Lisa Klotzbach, MA, RN, Kathy Orth, MS, RN, Barb Huus, MS, RN | |||
| Developing Effective Interventions: A Comparison of Home Visitation Models for High Risk Families Gayle P. Olsen, RN, MS, C-PNP, Sharon Tucker, DNSc, RN | |||
| Evaluating the Impact of Home Visiting Interventions with High Risk Families: Methodological Issues Sharon Tucker, DNSc, RN, Richard Olsen, MD, Gayle P. Olsen, RN, MS, C-PNP | |||
| Preparing the Next Generation of Nurses to Work with Diverse and Disadvantaged Clients: An Innovative Model Kathy Orth, MS, RN, Patricia Hartkopf, PhD, RN | |||
| Experiences of Nurses Who Work with High Risk Families: From Student to Expert Mary K. Proksch, EdD, RN | |||
Evidence-Based Nursing: Strategies for Improving Practice
Sigma Theta Tau International
July 21, 2004