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.