The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

4228.0: Tuesday, November 12, 2002 - 3:00 PM

Abstract #44279

'No-shows' and home visiting: Insights from women who did not keep home visiting appointments

Diane B. McNaughton, PhD, RN1, Julia Muennich Cowell, PhD, RNC, FAAN2, Deborah A. Gross, DNSc, RN2, and Sarah H. Ailey, MS, RN2. (1) Department of Community and Mental Health Nursing, Rush University College of Nursing, 600 S. Paulina Street, Suite 1080, Chicago, IL 60612, 312-942-7766, Diane_B_McNaughton@rush.edu, (2) College of Nursing, Community and Mental Health Nursing, Rush University, 600 South Paulina, 1080 Armour Academic Center, Chicago, IL 60612

Scheduling and completing home visits can be a challenge when clients are difficult to locate and are not at home when home visits are scheduled. Problems associated with home visiting ‘no-shows’ include discouraged and sometimes angry nurses, difficulty establishing nurse-client relationships, alteration of nursing dosage, and costs associated with travel time and lost nursing time. Although clients who miss home visiting appointments pose problems for delivery of nursing services, home visiting literature provides little insight into this problem, particularly in regard to client’s perspectives on why visits are missed. The purpose of this study is to describe why clients miss home visits and to determine if missed visits are related to client appraisal of the home visiting intervention. Data for this study come from women (n=50) enrolled in the Rush Mexican American Problem Solving Program, a clinical trial testing the effectiveness of home visits on mental health and family functioning of Mexican immigrant mothers. Data sources include telephone interviews and surveys using the Ervin Quality of Care Instruments. Interviews are conducted by telephone at the completion of the home visiting program to determine why mothers did not keep appointments and to determine factors that make keeping appointments difficult. In addition, participating mothers’ perceptions of health information adequacy, affective support and decisional control, the theoretical concepts that guide the home visits, are surveyed post intervention. Determining why home visits are missed can provide direction for planning future home visiting programs with fewer missed visits.

Learning Objectives:

Keywords: Home Visiting, Public Health Nursing

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

Home Health and Public Health Converge

The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA