Why health visiting? Examining the potential public health benefits from health visiting practice within a universal service: A narrative review of the literature

Abstract

Please cite this article as: Cowley, S., Whittaker, K., Malone, M., Donetto, S., Grigulis, A., Maben, J.,Why health visiting? Examining the potential public health benefits from health visiting practice within a universal service: a narrative review of the literature., International Journal of Nursing Studies (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10. 1016/j.ijnurstu.2014.07.013 This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. Abstract Introduction

A systematic review of the effectiveness of universal health visitor-led child health clinics

“…The results of this review are in line with the conclusions of a recent narrative review of literature examining the potential public health benefits from health visiting practice (Cowley et al 2014) which suggests that in general, there is a lack of evaluative research about the mechanisms by which the service promotes health and reduces health inequalities.…”

Health visiting in primary care in England: a crisis waiting to happen?

“…Furthermore, there is evidence about which interventions can help improve young children's current and future health 18 and about HVs' part in delivering these interventions through a proportionately universal service. 19 The wider research evidence for the longerterm benefits to health and wellbeing as well as the cost savings to primary care and the NHS across all the high impact areas, suggests that HV practice is, and should be, of significant concern to primary care. 16 Perhaps the areas in which HVs can help in achieving the General Practice Forward View 15 is in enabling practices and federations of practices to connect with their local communities, helping to integrate primary and social care and working on public health initiatives with primary care colleagues.…”

Realist evaluation of an enhanced health visiting programme

“…An example in the UK is the universal child health programme, often but not solely provided by the public health nursing services, and delivered by health visitors (may be called public health nurses or community nurses in other countries). Historically, health visiting has had a preventive nursing role and encompassed an integrated package of immunisation, screening, surveillance, health promotion and parenting support for families and children from birth to about 5 years of age [3, 4]. In the USA, early public health nursing roles also included advocacy, community organising, health education, and political and social reform, but this has changed to focus more on collaboration and partnerships with communities to address social problems in recent years [5].…”

“…Although several components of health visiting have been found to be effective [4], it is recognised that any programme does not work everywhere or for everyone, and that context actually makes a difference to programme outcomes [9, 10]. Indeed, because actors make particular decisions in response to a programme, the reasoning of the actors in response to the resources or opportunities provided by the programme (mechanisms) produces the outcomes [9].…”