Organising Health Visiting – UK Frontline Perspectives

The organisation of health visitor work is an important part of service design that can impact on when and where services are provided and who gains access. The paper reports a 2018 survey of UK health visitors conducted to provide an overview of the range of ways that health visitor cases and workloads are organised. The 584 respondents confirm the operation of three broad types of health visitor service delivery models. Namely the: individual case, corporate case or combination model. Themes that emerge from practitioner experiences of working with different models reflect concerns about: continuity and staffing; accommodating different needs; different services in different places. Overall these data indicate a lack of consistency in health visitor service across the UK. The advantages and disadvantages of each workload model is also detailed and are considered with respect to markers of a quality service, including achieving relationships with clients and sufficient communication within and across teams

The feasibility of a multi‐professional training to improve how health care professionals deliver different news to families during pregnancy and at birth

Background: In the United Kingdom, pregnant women are offered foetal anomaly screening to assess the chance of their baby being born with eleven different conditions. How health care professionals (HCPs) deliver news about a child having a congenital anomaly affects how it is received and processed by parents. We refer to this news as different news. Methods: We conducted a mixed methods evaluation of a training intervention to improve how HCPs deliver different news. Twenty‐six HCPs self‐completed pretraining and posttraining questionnaires on skills, knowledge, and attitudes related to delivering different news. Qualitative interviews were conducted with eight HCPs. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics, the paired t test to compare the pre and post scores and estimate the difference between pre and post scores, and the 95% confidence interval. Qualitative data were analysed using framework analysis guided by the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF). Results: The training intervention was both feasible and acceptable. HCPs indicated that it enhanced or consolidated their knowledge and skills, covered topics relevant to their practice, and that they would recommend it to colleagues. Participants particularly valued integration of the voice of parents with lived experience in the training. Significant increase in mean scores were observed in confidence to deliver different news (2.81, 95% CI [2.43, 3.19] to 4.28, 95% CI [4.09, 4.47]; p < .001) and skills to deliver different news (3.00, 95% CI [2.64, 3.36] to 4.36, 95% CI [4.13, 4.59]; p < .001). HCPs reported feeling more confident in their ability to provide sensitive, responsive, balanced care to families. Conclusions: The significant improvements in confidence and skills reported by HCPs suggest that the training may be effective in equipping HCPs to minimize the distress, anxiety, and depression associated with receiving different news. This represents a key aspect of the prevention of mental ill health across the life course

Vaccination in pregnancy: Attitudes of nurses, midwives and health visitors in England.

OBJECTIVE: To examine amongst healthcare professionals in England; knowledge of vaccinations in pregnancy, their perceived roles in these programmes and whether they recommend scheduled vaccines to pregnant women. DESIGN: Cross sectional survey (online questionnaire) Setting: Healthcare workers in contact with pregnant women in England. PARTICIPANTS: The survey analysis included 3441 healthcare workers who had been surveyed during May to August 2015. The participants were midwives, practice nurses and health visitors, working in England who were members of the Royal College of Midwives, Royal College of Nursing and the Institute of Health Visiting. RESULTS: We found that knowledge of vaccination in pregnancy was high in all professional groups. Seventy three percent of all respondents would recommend the influenza vaccine and 74% would recommend the pertussis vaccine to pregnant women. They were more likely to recommend vaccination in pregnancy if they would personally have the influenza and pertussis vaccines themselves and/or if they had the influenza vaccine as a healthcare worker. Practice nurses were significantly more likely to recommend the pertussis and influenza vaccines to pregnant women than midwives and health visitors. Health professionals who had received immunisation training were more confident in giving advice to pregnant women. CONCLUSION: Immunisation training is essential if healthcare workers are to be informed and confident in effectively delivering the maternal immunisation programme and thus improving uptake of vaccines in pregnancy. These findings are important in tailoring educational programmes and addressing the training needs of different healthcare professional groups

Community Public health in Policy and Practice

xix, 377 hlm,; 24,5 cm

Postnatal depression and maternal mental health in a multi-cultural society Challenges and solutions

Proceedings of the third conference of the CPHVA Postnatal Depression and Maternal Mental Health Network, held on Thursday June 19, 2003 at the Cutlers' Hall, Sheffield. Title from coverAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:m03/36809 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo