Enhancements and Adaptations to the Nurse Family Partnership Home Visitation Model in an Alaska Native Tribal Health Organization

Background: In south-central Alaska, Southcentral Foundation (SCF) works closely with the Nurse Family Partnership (NFP) National Service Office to adapt and enhance NFP materials for delivery to primiparous (first time) and multiparous Alaska Native (AN) and American Indian (AI) mothers through home visitation. Nurses employed by SCF, an AN owned and operated health care system, have delivered home visiting services to families with newborns for 17 years.

Purpose: In June 2012, they shifted to provide services using the NFP model. Prior to this shift, the Administration for Children and Families  Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting program (MIECHV), grant funded a Community Needs Assessment to identify needs present in SCF’s Anchorage Service Area. NFP, which generally enrolls only primiparous mothers, was otherwise a good fit for addressing the needs described and SCF’s mission of “working together with the Native Community to achieve wellness through health and related services.”

Methods: In collaboration with the Prevention Research Center at the University of Colorado Denver, SCF modified enrollment criteria to include multiparous mothers, adapted facilitator (hand-out) content and images to better reflect our tribal community, and required all home visitors undergo a New Hire Orientation, which includes cultural teaching.

Results:  These adaptations and enhancements provide nurses with tools to provide culturally appropriate services to families meeting eligibility criteria (low income and primiparous OR multiparous and meeting “social risk” criteria).

Conclusion:  This poster describes the process SCF clinical and research staff undertook to adapting and enhancing NFP materials for use in our community and clinical setting.