Professional Education
Train-The-Trainer Institute for Professional Training Postpartum Nurse Home Visitors

Purpose:
This 2-day Institute will support nurse trainers who are implementing a universal postpartum home visiting program. The Public Health Nurse's role as trainer and content expert is facilitated through the use of a comprehensive curriculum that addresses issues related to postpartum care of both the mother and infant, the family's transition, and other concerns that the family may have.

Audience:
The Institute is designed for Public Health Nurses to train those nurses implementing a postpartum home visiting program to all families.

Institute Features:
The Institute provides a rich and engaging learning environment that includes:
  • A comprehensive manual prepared by Canadian experts in public health nursing, early intervention, child development, and family support.
  • A customization process that allows local communities the opportunity to ensure the manual and training reflect local philosophies, programs, and systems supporting families with newborns.
  • 8 ready to deliver modules with training plans, activities, and handouts already prepared on such topics as maternal and infant physical and emotional health; infant feeding; parenting, attachment and the newborn; and child abuse
  • References to additional information and resources.
  • Diverse learning formats including small and large group work, expert presentation, video analysis, and case studies.
Institute Goals:
  • To enhance and develop the knowledge and skills of those training professional nurse home visitors in postpartum care.
  • To build local capacity to train professional nurse home visitors on an ongoing basis.
  • To affirm the importance of training for postpartum home visiting
  • To raise the level of knowledge and skills of professionals that work with at-risk families with young children and their role in postpartum intervention.
  • To affirm the valuable role professional nurse home visitors have in the lives of new parents.

A CURRICULUM FOR TRAINING PUBLIC HEALTH NURSES CONDUCTING POSTPARTUM HOME VISITS

  1. An Introduction to Postpartum Home Visiting
    Focus:
    • Vision, goals, guidelines and components of the Healthy Babies, Healthy Children Program
    • Importance of the postpartum home visit within the continuum of services for families with new babies
    • Parental perception about parenting and the implications for the postpartum home visit
    • Concept of "at risk" and identification of children who may be "at risk"
    • Appropriate action for children at risk


  2. Conducting the Postpartum Home Visit
    Focus:
    • The role of the Public Health Nurse and the requirements of the postpartum home visit
    • Scope of possible interventions
    • Importance of working within an interdisciplinary team to meet the needs of families
    • Awareness of issues related to cultural diversity and strategies to address the issue
    • Strategies for increased personal safety


  3. Maternal Physical and Emotional Health
    Focus:
    • Assessment of maternal physical and emotional health in the postpartum period
    • Distinction between normal and abnormal findings
    • Assessment of red flag findings
    • Appropriate teaching and nursing interventions
    • Assessment of postpartum depression
    • Nursing interventions for postpartum depression


  4. Infant Physical Health and Safety
    Focus:
    • Assessment of infant's physical health in the early postpartum period
    • Distinction between normal and abnormal findings
    • Assessment of red flag findings
    • Importance of health and safety issues for new parents


  5. Infant Feeding
    Focus:
    • Exploration of different approaches and beliefs toward breastfeeding
    • Benefits of breastfeeding for the mother and the newborn
    • Assessment of successful feeding
    • Identification and correction of common feeding problems
    • Linkage to breastfeeding support systems
    • Exploration of different approaches and beliefs toward breastfeeding
    • Benefits of breastfeeding for the mother and the newborn
    • Assessment of successful feeding
    • Identification and correction of common feeding problems
    • Linkage to breastfeeding support systems


  6. Family Transitions and Baby
    Focus:
    • Common challenges faced by families in adjusting to a newborn
    • Strategies for supporting the family's transition to a new baby
    • Responses to commonly expressed concerns by parents of newborns
    • Use of a postpartum home visit to alleviate parental anxieties and discuss the basics of baby care


  7. Parenting, Attachment and the Newborn
    Focus:
    • Importance of the parent-infant relationship during the first few days of life
    • Recognition of signs of a poor attachment
    • Supporting families to become familiar with the meaning of infant cues
    • Supporting families to promote a secure attachment with their baby
    • Characteristics and significance of infant temperament
    • Interventions to support bereaved families


  8. Child Abuse and Family Violence
    Focus:
    • Definition of and factors contributing to child abuse
    • Indicators that an infant may have been abused or is at risk for abuse
    • Documentation of indicators of abuse
    • How to respond to a disclosure of abuse
    • Feelings that interfere with mandatory reporting
    • Provincial child protection legislation
    • Reporting procedures and responsibilities