The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #70009

Phyllis W. Sharps, PhD, RN¹, Phyllis W. Sharps, PhD, RN¹, and Patricia Price-Lea, PhD, RN². (1) School of Nursing, Johns Hopkins University, 525 N. Wolfe Street, Room 464, Baltimore, MD 21205, 410-614-5312, psharps@son.jhmi.edu, (2) Nurisng, North Carolina Agricultural & Techanical University, 1600 East Market Street, Greensboro, NC 27411

This presentation will describe a pilot project that tested the feasibility of a quasi experimental community health nursing home visit intervention (CHNHVI) to reduce health disaprities by increasing: 1) access to health care; 2) health promoting and safety behaviors; and 3) parenting skills of women survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV). Community health nurses (CHN) will assist families, by developing a Passport to Health, which will help them identify appropriate health goals and adopt behaviors that will help them achieve these goals and access to health care. Thirty-two (32) resdients of 2 domestic violence shelters (one rural NC and one urban MD) will be recruitted to the post shelter CHNHVI or comparison (post shelter usual care) groups. The CHNHVI includes health education, parenting, strategies for implementing safety plans; and referrlas for accessing health care. Families receive interventions sessions for 6 month post shelter stay. Data was collected 3 and 6 months post shelter stay. Data was examined to compare outcomes between the CHNHVI and comparison groups. We hypothesized that families enrolled in the CHNHVI will report increased: 1) health behaviors; 2) use of appropriate health visits; 3) safety behaviors and 4) parenting skills. This presentation will discuss preliminary findings of the pilot, specfically the CHNHVI as a strategy for reduicng health disparities for family survivors of IPV.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of this presentation participants will be able to:
• Describe health disparities for women and children surviors of intimate partner violence.
• Describe a community health nursing home visit intervention for women and children leaving a domestic violence shelter.
• Discuss the use of a community health nurse home visit intervention as a strategy for reducing health disparities for family survivors of intimate partner violence.

Keywords: Battered Women, Health Care Access

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.