Virtual home visits during COVID-19 pandemic: mothers’ and home visitors’ perspectives
Abstract Background The experiences of mothers enrolled in Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program with virtual home visiting (VHV) during the pandemic remain mostly unknown. This study aimed to describe in detail the experience of home visitors and mothers with VHV durin...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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BMC
2023-08-01
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| Series: | BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-023-05896-9 |
| _version_ | 1797451107031580672 |
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| author | Abdullah Al-Taiar Michele A. Kekeh Stephanie Ewers Amy L. Prusinski Kimberly J. Alombro Nancy Welch |
| author_facet | Abdullah Al-Taiar Michele A. Kekeh Stephanie Ewers Amy L. Prusinski Kimberly J. Alombro Nancy Welch |
| author_sort | Abdullah Al-Taiar |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Background The experiences of mothers enrolled in Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program with virtual home visiting (VHV) during the pandemic remain mostly unknown. This study aimed to describe in detail the experience of home visitors and mothers with VHV during COVID-19 pandemic. This is a prerequisite for guiding future efforts to optimize MIECHV services that are provided through virtual operation. Methods Focus groups discussion were conducted with home visitors (n = 13) and mothers (n = 30) who were enrolled in BabyCare program in Virginia from January 2019 to June 2022. This included mothers who received in-person home visiting (IPHV), VHV, or both (hybrid IPHV and VHV). Inductive analysis was used to identify emergent themes from the transcripts, then coding was conducted following a codebook that was developed by the research team. Results Both mothers and home visitors considered IPHV necessary for a proper assessment of developmental milestones of children, for the assessment of the growth of the child through measuring the weight and height/length of the child, for the mothers to open up and discuss sensitive issues like domestic violence, for building a relationship between home-visitor and the parents, and for other potential benefits (comprehensive assessment of the environment around the child inside and outside the house from home visitors’ perspective and detecting abnormal health conditions in children from mothers’ perspective). Both mothers and home visitors see that VHV has some role to play but not to be a replacement for IPHV. If VHV is to be used, video conference is preferred by both mothers and home visitors, as it allows for some assessment. Conclusion Mothers and nurses considered IPHV critical for proper and comprehensive assessment of the child and the family and also essential to build the nurse-client relationship. Both mothers and home visitors considered VHV supplementary to IPHV that can be used from time to time particularly with busy mothers. VHV may have little room with parents with intellectual disabilities and the difficulty in dealing with technology seems to be no longer a major issue. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T14:50:06Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-2ced532ee17d41ba8a33be0848056ee6 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1471-2393 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T14:50:06Z |
| publishDate | 2023-08-01 |
| publisher | BMC |
| record_format | Article |
| series | BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth |
| spelling | doaj.art-2ced532ee17d41ba8a33be0848056ee62023-11-26T14:31:28ZengBMCBMC Pregnancy and Childbirth1471-23932023-08-0123111410.1186/s12884-023-05896-9Virtual home visits during COVID-19 pandemic: mothers’ and home visitors’ perspectivesAbdullah Al-Taiar0Michele A. Kekeh1Stephanie Ewers2Amy L. Prusinski3Kimberly J. Alombro4Nancy Welch5School of Community & Environmental Health, College of Health Sciences, Old Dominion UniversitySchool of Community & Environmental Health, College of Health Sciences, Old Dominion UniversitySchool of Community & Environmental Health, College of Health Sciences, Old Dominion UniversitySchool of Community & Environmental Health, College of Health Sciences, Old Dominion UniversitySchool of Community & Environmental Health, College of Health Sciences, Old Dominion UniversityVirginia Department of Health, Chesapeake Health DistrictAbstract Background The experiences of mothers enrolled in Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program with virtual home visiting (VHV) during the pandemic remain mostly unknown. This study aimed to describe in detail the experience of home visitors and mothers with VHV during COVID-19 pandemic. This is a prerequisite for guiding future efforts to optimize MIECHV services that are provided through virtual operation. Methods Focus groups discussion were conducted with home visitors (n = 13) and mothers (n = 30) who were enrolled in BabyCare program in Virginia from January 2019 to June 2022. This included mothers who received in-person home visiting (IPHV), VHV, or both (hybrid IPHV and VHV). Inductive analysis was used to identify emergent themes from the transcripts, then coding was conducted following a codebook that was developed by the research team. Results Both mothers and home visitors considered IPHV necessary for a proper assessment of developmental milestones of children, for the assessment of the growth of the child through measuring the weight and height/length of the child, for the mothers to open up and discuss sensitive issues like domestic violence, for building a relationship between home-visitor and the parents, and for other potential benefits (comprehensive assessment of the environment around the child inside and outside the house from home visitors’ perspective and detecting abnormal health conditions in children from mothers’ perspective). Both mothers and home visitors see that VHV has some role to play but not to be a replacement for IPHV. If VHV is to be used, video conference is preferred by both mothers and home visitors, as it allows for some assessment. Conclusion Mothers and nurses considered IPHV critical for proper and comprehensive assessment of the child and the family and also essential to build the nurse-client relationship. Both mothers and home visitors considered VHV supplementary to IPHV that can be used from time to time particularly with busy mothers. VHV may have little room with parents with intellectual disabilities and the difficulty in dealing with technology seems to be no longer a major issue.https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-023-05896-9Maternal, infant and early childhood home visitingVirtual home visitingCOVID-19Focus group discussion |
| spellingShingle | Abdullah Al-Taiar Michele A. Kekeh Stephanie Ewers Amy L. Prusinski Kimberly J. Alombro Nancy Welch Virtual home visits during COVID-19 pandemic: mothers’ and home visitors’ perspectives BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth Maternal, infant and early childhood home visiting Virtual home visiting COVID-19 Focus group discussion |
| title | Virtual home visits during COVID-19 pandemic: mothers’ and home visitors’ perspectives |
| title_full | Virtual home visits during COVID-19 pandemic: mothers’ and home visitors’ perspectives |
| title_fullStr | Virtual home visits during COVID-19 pandemic: mothers’ and home visitors’ perspectives |
| title_full_unstemmed | Virtual home visits during COVID-19 pandemic: mothers’ and home visitors’ perspectives |
| title_short | Virtual home visits during COVID-19 pandemic: mothers’ and home visitors’ perspectives |
| title_sort | virtual home visits during covid 19 pandemic mothers and home visitors perspectives |
| topic | Maternal, infant and early childhood home visiting Virtual home visiting COVID-19 Focus group discussion |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-023-05896-9 |
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