Nurses' Unique Opportunity to Promote Patient Engagement in Prenatal Care

To report an analysis of the concept of patient engagement in prenatal care.

Engagement in health care has been widely discussed but vaguely defined. Patients benefit more from their health care when they are fully engaged in their care. Patient engagement in prenatal care is an important element of prenatal care utilization that has not been analyzed, standardized as a concept, or measured.

Concept analysis.

CINAHL, MEDLINE, PsycINFO databases, and the internet were searched for literature published in English with a focus on peer-reviewed journals from disciplines of business, allied health sciences, health administration, psychology, and nursing, focusing on the period of 2010-2015.

Hybrid version of the Walker and Avant concept analysis method (2011).

This concept analysis provides 4 defining attributes of patient engagement in prenatal care and a table of related empirical referents of engagement. These elements offer a foundation for further nursing scholarship toward measurement and evaluation of patient engagement in prenatal care.

Patient engagement in prenatal care represents a human response to a health condition. Efforts to increase patient engagement in health care are best addressed by the nursing profession through continued research and intervention development.