Recorded presentation

Sherry Garrett Hendrickson, PhD, RN, School of Nursing, The University of Texas at Austin, 1700 Red River, Austin, TX 78701, 512 471-9079, shendrickson@mail.nur.utexas.edu

The combination of language, cultural differences, differences in program delivery and variance between visitor expectations are threats to productive interactions between home visitors and their targeted population. Lack of bilingual visitors is the one of the most substantial barriers to accessing non-English speaking (NES) populations, followed by inadequately translated health education materials. The social cognition of program participants must also be considered. A poor fit between the beliefs of the target population, and the goal of the home visit, may result in a superficial interaction and ineffective time invested with participants.

This presentation describes the innovative pairing of monolingual home visitors with bilingual nursing students and the methodology created to optimize home safety visits to NES mothers of preschool age children. A review of the literature identified known weaknesses and gaps responsible for poor home visit interactions and outcomes. There has been gradual valuing of paraprofessional visitors with practical experience and community knowledge, but no educational degree beyond high school and no professional training. No mention of collaboration between agencies' home visitors and nursing schools' students to serve NES is found in the current literature. Same-ethnicity nursing students and outreach visitors participated in discussion of the home visit guidelines, wording of survey questions, intervention and final visit interactions to determine what characteristics would make the visits successful. Lessons learned range from providing Human Subjects education in Spanish for home visitors, to student observations of home visitor- mother interactions, to the home visitors insights of their interactions. Recommendations for practice follow.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) will be able to

• Identify common home visitor interaction strengths and weaknesses;
• Describe potential recommendations to potiate these strengths and to minimize these weaknesses;
• Evaluate the collaborative pairing of home visitors with nursing students.

Keywords: Home Visiting, Collaboration

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.

Recorded presentation