Program development and maternal-child health consultation: a conceptual model for role enactment in developing...

Increasingly, nurses are serving as consultants in designing programs to improve the health of individuals in developing countries. In order to be effective, such programs must reflect the socio-cultural context in which identified health problems occur. This can become problematic when nurses work as consultants in cultures with which they are unfamiliar. This paper proposes the use of the World Health Organization's risk strategy approach as a conceptual framework for developing culture specific programs in maternal-infant health. Suggested consultant role behaviors are articulated with this approach and the various phases of program development using an ongoing project in Juarez, Mexico to which the author has provided nursing consultation as a concrete example.