Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #103066

Maisha Amen, RN, PhD, School of Nursing, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, 65 Bergen Street, Suite 1041, PO Box 1709, Newark, NJ 07101-1709, 973-372-2756, mmamen@aol.com and Dula Pacquiao, EdD, RN, CTN, Department of Nursing, Kean University, 1000 Morris Avenue, Union, NJ 07083.

Abstract

The study examined experiences of mothers and health care providers with preventive child health care services using qualitative methods at a primary care clinic located in transitional housing for homeless families in an urban community with predominantly Black American residents. Participants were 20 mothers who attended preventive child health services and 4 health care professionals (1 MD, 1 RN and 2 Social Workers) who had been providing health services at the setting for at least one year. Three major domains emerged: 1) the infrastructure of the clinic and healthcare delivery poses barriers to mothers' access and utilization of services for their children, 2) specialized, biomedical-driven care produces fragmented care delivery that was not responsive to the comprehensive nature of problems of mothers and their children, and 3) conceptualization of organizational strategies for improving health care access and utilization of health care services are directed by health care providers' value orientations that may not be congruent with the situational realities in the lives of mothers and their children. Findings support existence of infrastructural characteristics of the health care system that maintain differential value orientations and power structure, and care delivery processes and strategies that are non-responsive to racially diverse and poor mothers.

Learning Objectives: Learning Objectives

• Explain the influence of health care provider's values upon delivery of preventive child health care services in environments.
• Explain the influence of mothers'values upon the use of preventive child health care services in transitional urban housing.

Keywords: Ambulatory Care, Urban Health Services Barriers

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.