Nurse-Family Partnership core education.
Through intensive training and education, Nurse-Family Partnership Nurse Home Visitors become equipped to effectively deliver the program.
The Nursing Practice team at the Nurse-Family Partnership National Service Office provides both face-to-face and distance learning environments for the core education required of all Nurse-Family Partnership Nurse Home Visitors and Nurse Supervisors prior to client enrollment. This specialized nurse training helps establish therapeutic relationships between the client and nurse home visitor, which in turn preserves the clinical integrity of the Nurse-Family Partnership model. New nurses also learn the visit-to-visit guidelines, which provide a consistent structure for each of the 64 planned home visits.
With assistance from supervisors and consultation from the National Service Office, nurses develop strong communication, personal relationship building, and problem-solving skills. Teams of nurses at local Nurse-Family Partnership Implementing Agencies meet regularly for case conferences, where they receive guidance from supervisors and colleagues to help them deliver the best possible care to their clients. Team meetings also help individual nurses cope with the stress inherent in working with clients who may have numerous personal and health-related crises, and who may be at high-risk for violence in their homes and neighborhoods.
In addition to Nurse-Family Partnership core education and the visit-to-visit guidelines, nurse home visitors meet regularly with their supervisors to develop a reflective practice and continuously assess their clinical nursing skills.