Future imperatives: developing health visiting in response to changing demands

Area of Science:

• Nursing
• Health Services Research
• Public Health

Background:

• Purchasers need clearer mechanisms for specifying health visiting services.
• The National Institute for Nursing initiated this work to address this need.
• Evolving community care demands necessitate updated health visiting practices.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish explicit purchasing mechanisms for health visiting services.
• To develop an ideal model for health visiting practice.
• To identify outcome measures for health visiting.

Main Methods:

• Literature reviews.
• Questionnaires.
• Stakeholder interviews.

Main Results:

• Identification of current issues in health visiting service purchasing.
• Development of an 'ideal model for practice' for health visitors.
• Consideration of outcome measures for health visiting.

Conclusions:

• An ideal model for practice can guide explicit purchasing of health visiting services.
• Outcome measures are crucial for evaluating health visiting in the context of changing healthcare.
• This work supports the future of community care delivery.