Roles of Visiting Nurses in Supporting Medically Dependent Children Living at Home

The purpose of this study was to identify the fundamental roles of visiting nurses as a foundation for creating effective educational programs for nurses of medically dependent (MD) children being treated at home. The relationship among the statements representing 3 types of roles was analyzed using structural equation modeling. There were 296 participants involved in performing home-visit nursing for MD children. Their structural roles related to home-visit nursing systems and skills were strongly correlated with the interpersonal roles related to support for MD children and their families, arrangements for whole families, and interprofessional collaborations. The correlations between these roles and the role determination process demonstrated that their future vision and selfgrowth were weak. This study makes the following recommendations: the development of specialized approaches to nursing practices; training in interprofessional collaboration; the realization of professional self-growth; and the creation of educational programs to assist visiting nurses in improving the home-visit nursing systems.