Public Health Nurses Teaching BrainWise

Posted On: March 28, 2014

March, 2014 brought the good news that the Jefferson County Public Health Nurses and Human Services Collaboration (Nurse Collaboration) has been selected as a Promising Practices Program by NACCHO, the National Association of City and County Officials. In 2010, The Nurse Collaboration was introduced as a new and innovative model to improve health decisions in at-risk families. The intervention: public health nurse home visitors teach the BrainWise decision-making program and show families how replace impulsive and emotional reactions with decision making skills. The program involved collaboration with the Jefferson County Human Service Children, Youth and Families Divisions and Community Health Services Division.

Lisa Gatti, MSN, RN, supervisor of the Nurse Collaboration, says that data have been collected on additional families, bringing the total number of clients to 150. Clients receive an average of 18-24 home visits of approximately one hour in length. The nurses collected pre and posttest data that measured parental behaviors, social support, child development knowledge, health literacy and resources and safety.

Data analyzed on the first 80 clients found they improved on all 36 variables, and showed statistically significant improvement on 24 variables. Analysis on 70 additional cases is waiting until the County hires a new data analyst.

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