Changes in health visitors' work.

Area of Science:

• Nursing Science
• Community Health
• Public Health

Background:

• Renewed focus on community health care, health promotion, and illness prevention highlights the importance of health visiting.
• Understanding changes in health visiting practice is crucial for advancing the service within nursing science.
• Comparative analysis of health visitor experiences provides insights into service development.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the experiences of Scottish health visitors (HVs) regarding changes in their work.
• To compare the experiences of Scottish HVs with those of their Norwegian counterparts.
• To identify differences and similarities in the evolution of health visiting services in Scotland and Norway.

Main Methods:

• Comparative descriptive study design.
• In-depth interviews conducted with nine health visitors from Scotland.
• In-depth interviews conducted with twelve health visitors from Norway.

Main Results:

• Both Scottish and Norwegian HVs reported changes in workload, with both increases and decreases in different areas.
• HVs noted shifts in work practices, emphasizing client empowerment and a reduction in nursing management roles.
• Significant differences emerged in service specialization and expansion; Scottish HVs adopted a broader 'cradle to grave' approach and greater individual specialization with peer collaboration compared to Norwegian HVs.

Conclusions:

• Scottish HVs appear to be developing a more comprehensive, integrated service focused on illness prevention and health promotion for all.
• Norwegian HVs are seen as needing to pursue a similar developmental pathway.
• Further research is recommended to explore the drivers of these changes, specialization differences, and their impact on service quality and client outcomes.