General Community Nursing Services

Public Health Nurses continue to provide a variety of services and activities within the community.  They provide these services to individuals, families, and groups in homes, clinics, schools and other community settings.  Some of these services were provided to families who experienced sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).  During 2000, there were four SIDS deaths with a total of six contacts made by the public health nurse.  The lead program activities include public health nurse home visits to assess, educate, and support families with a lead burdened child.   Many other referrals were received including those for adult case management and referral; and for miscellaneous problematic issues such as education for head lice eradication.  Community nutrition services were also provided in the home and at assigned health centers by the registered dietitian.

Other services include the provision of public health nurse clinics in community centers, senior high rises, and other community settings.  The services include general health assessment and referral and blood pressure screening.  The public health nurse also continues to provide full or partial support to the regularly scheduled immunization clinics operating in Ingham County communities, especially clinics located in rural areas.

Maternal/Child Health Services

In 2000, the Division of Public Health Nursing continued to work with family units to prevent problems with mothers and infants.  They provided prenatal visits, hospital visits, and early postpartum home visits to women and their families who receive prenatal care at any of the other health department centers that provide prenatal care services.  These services included maternal assessments, blood pressure checks, infant assessment, long term tracking of growth and development, home teaching, nutrition issues, and other psychosocial issues a new mother faces.

Maternal and Infant support services were provided to pregnant women and their families who meet the established referral criteria.  These women and their families were followed by the multi-disciplinary team consisting of a nurse, nutritionist, and social worker.  The team collaborated to support, teach, provide counsel and refer pregnant women to other community agencies.  The goal for services is to create a supportive environment to at-risk families in order to reduce infant and maternal mortality and morbidity.  In 2000, Public Health Nursing provided 3,956 home visits.

Early On

Early On service coordination continued during 2000.  The 0-3 at-risk children, eligible for the services, received home contact by a multi-disciplinary   team of nurses, nutritionists, social workers, child development experts, and advocates to ensure that families were obtaining the resources they needed to help them with the medical, physical, or mental condition experienced by their child.  A lead public health nurse provided service coordination, training and monitoring for Early On.   In 2000, Public Health Nursing provided Early On services to an average of 94 families per month.

Jump Start Family Outreach Program

During 2000, the merged program continued as a voluntary support and an education program without charge to families residing in Ingham County.  The services include visits to pregnant women and/or families with very young children.   The goal at Jump Start is reaffirmed that every child is entitled to develop and grow as healthy and happy children in a safe environment in order to reach their full potential.  The areas of service include early prenatal intervention and education, the enhancement of positive parent-child interactions and relationships, support of healthy family functioning, and the encouragement of learning readiness.  The staff helps to build trusting relationships, and provide information, resources, and referrals to families.  The families are encouraged to improve their problem solving skills and to utilize appropriate community resource and support systems.

The process for receiving Jump Start service begins either with direct referral for a pregnant woman or post delivery of an infant when the family signs a consent in the hospital to obtain the services.  At the initial meeting, the strengths and concerns of the family are identified.  A decision is made as to the appropriate community agency to address the family's needs.  When Jump Start staff is considered the most appropriate agency to follow up, home visiting is offered as time permits and a family advocate is assigned.

During the year, a public health nurse was hired to provide 20 hours of clinical oversight for the family advocates.  The remaining 20 hours for the position  were allotted to generalized public health nursing.

During 2000, the Jump Start Program family advocates provided services to an average of 20 families per month.   The public health nurse provided an average of 79 contact hours per family including service provisions, evaluation hours, home visits to develop Individual Family Service plans (IFSP) and training hours.

School Health Nursing

During the 2000 school year, public health nurses served schools in Ingham County directly through regularly scheduled weekly visits.  This included participation in kindergarten roundups, and/or an on-call basis to 68 schools in the county.  The services were provided to administrators, faculty, other school staff and school children on request.  Areas of service included health education, communicable and chronic disease prevention, head lice education and prevention, vision and/or hearing follow up, reproductive health promotion, dental health promotion, children with special needs, and other general health concerns.  Class room presentations and blood pressure screening for school personnel were also offered on request.

Schools where direct school services are provided include: Dansville, Haslett, including alternative education school, Meridian High School, Mason, Okemos, Webberville, and Williamston.  Services were also continued on a regular basis to Haslett Family Learning Center and Early Childhood Education Center.  Leslie and Stockbridge School Districts are serviced by the public health nurse assigned to the satellite health center network.  many of the public charter schools in the area sought advice regarding a variety of health issues including head lice education and eradication and general health issues such as proper hand washing and community resource development.