COVID-19 has prompted changes in almost everything we do, including how we connect to health care and other services. Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) shared the changes local programs and families have made to make sure families can stay connected to services and stay safe during COVID-19. NFP covers this in detail in their 13-minute Spark Session recording from our annual Maternal Health Innovation Symposium.
NFP is an evidence-based, community health program operating across the US that has specially trained nurses regularly visit young, first-time moms-to-be, starting early in the pregnancy, and continuing through the child’s second birthday. The presentation describes NFP’s quick transition to offering more services via telehealth, which had always been an option for families and nurses.
Starting in the middle of March 2020, in response to local, state, and national stay at home orders amid the COVID-19 pandemic, NFP stepped up their implementation of telehealth. NFP’s presentation shows some of their initial findings about client satisfaction with telehealth. That preliminary data can offer important lessons to other providers offering services to families through telehealth.For instance, they saw a sharp incline in the percent of visits conducted over telehealth, from an average of 5.4% to 94%. It’s inspiring how quickly NFP clients, nurses, and other providers have pivoted to new models of care.
Despite the success of telehealth visits in the NFP model, nurses still saw some clients who didn’t have the ability to connect, many due to lack of access to regular phone or Internet service. In response, NFP launched the “Phone for Families Initiative” which distributed smart phones to clients without phone service and offered four months of unlimited service and data. Nurses reported that this program has helped clients stay connected, which is backed up by NFP’s initial data analysis. The program ended January 30, 2021.
If you know someone that would benefit from NFP’s services, use their ‘Find a Nurse’ tool on their website to find a nurse in your area.
About MHLIC Spark Sessions:
At September’s inaugural National Maternal Health Innovation Symposium, MHLIC shared over 20 Spark Session videos. These are a curated collection of brief presentations detailing innovative maternal health programs, policies, or strategies from around the nation. The goal was not only to share examples of creative work by others in maternal health but to “spark” ideas in viewers about how you might do something new or differently in your own work. Over the next several months, we will highlight some of the Spark Sessions on our blog.