National survey of nurse home visitor collaboration with health care and social services

Objective To assess the degree to which nurses in a national public health home visiting program collaborate with interprofessional providers to serve families experiencing adversity. Design A descriptive, cross-sectional survey measured collaborative practices between nurse home visitors, health care, and social service providers. A census of 263 nursing supervisors completed a web-based survey. Measurements The survey included the validated 7-item Relational Coordination Scale, adapted items from the Interagency Collaboration Activities Scale on shared resources, and items related to collaboration attitudes and beliefs. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics. Results Relational coordination scores, which are relative measures, ranged from 1 to 5; highest with supplemental nutrition for Women, Infants & Children (M = 3.77) and early intervention (M = 3.44); and lowest with housing (M = 2.55). The greatest sharing of resources was with supplemental nutrition (sum = 12.95) and mental health providers (sum = 11.81), and least with housing (sum = 7.26); with a range of 1-30 where higher scores indicated greater resource-sharing. Conclusion Home visiting nurses collaborate with interprofessional providers with variation in the degree of collaboration between agencies and by provider type within an agency. Collaboration was a function of two interrelated domains: interpersonal relationships supported by organizational and contextual factors at the systems-level.