Promoting maternal infant health in rural communities. The Rural Health Outreach Program

RHOP is a nurse-managed community-based program that uses a variety of approaches to reduce infant mortality and improve maternal child health. In a rural area, representative of much of the rural South, which has a persistent record of poor maternal-child outcomes, the program is using university and community resources to make a difference. The goal is to empower the community to help it help itself using all the available resources. The initial outcome data indicate that these positive changes are happening and can be the site for future activities by those in the community as well as the university. Future plans include involving more departments at the university in the program and expanding services to three additional counties. Graduate students and faculty are becoming interested in conducting research using RHOP activities as a base, and future grants are being considered to expand into new areas such as substance abuse and cancer prevention.