Nurse Family Partnership (NFP)

Brief Description

Nurse Family Partnership (NFP) is a maternal and child health program that seeks to change the lives of low-income, first-time mothers and their children, as well as strengthen communities by helping them break the cycle of poverty. 

The program is centered on conflict resolution; leadership and youth development; mentoring – tutoring; parent training; skills training; and social emotional learning.

Goals

The main goals of the NFP program are to:

• Improve pregnancy outcomes;
• Improve child health and development; and
• Improve parental life-course.

Clientele

The appropriate clientele for the NFP program are women who are socially disadvantaged first-time mothers. To participate in the program, the woman must be a low-income, first-time mother.

Core Components

The NFP program consists of:

• Home visits: Specially trained nurses are paired with first-time moms and visit these moms throughout their pregnancy and until their baby turns two years old. During these visits, nurses offer first-time mothers the knowledge and support they need to confidently create a better life for themselves and their baby. More specifically, nurses help first-time mothers have a healthy pregnancy and coach them on child development.

Implementation Information

Some of the critical elements for the implementation of this program or initiative include the following:

• Organizational requirements: The lead organization should ensure proper analysis of the community and individual needs of first-time mothers, as well as knowledge of existing services, resources, and organizations that are available to these mothers.
• Partnerships: The success of the NFP program depends on its partnerships with health services and community-based organizations.
• Training and technical assistance: Staff must be trained as a nurse before they are able to administer the NFP program to participants.
• Risk assessment tools: Limited information on this topic.
• Materials & resources: Limited information on this topic.

International Endorsements

The most recognized classification systems of evidence-based crime prevention programs have classified this program or initiative as follows:

• Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development: Model
• Crime Solutions/OJJDP Model Program Guide: Effective - More than one study
• SAMHSA's National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices: 3.2 - 3.5
• Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy: Top Tier

Gathering Canadian Knowledge

Canadian Implementation Sites

The NFP program has been implemented in British Columbia as of 2013.

Main Findings from Canadian Outcome Evaluation Studies

The NFP program offered by the Children’s Health Policy Centre at Simon Fraser and McMaster University in British Columbia has been selected for an outcome evaluation by the BC Ministry of Health. As the evaluation is currently in progress, results are not yet available at this time.

Cost Information

The cost is not available in Canadian dollars. Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development (2015) has provided a cost example which includes 8 nurses and a caseload of 25 families per nurse. With this example, 200 families would be served at a cost of $5,074 (USD) per family for one year of services.

References

Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development (2015). Nurse-Family Partnership – Program Information. Available from: http://www.blueprintsprograms.com/

For more information on this program, contact:

Harriet MacMillan, McMaster University
Telephone: (905) 521-2100 ext.74287
E-mail:  macmilnh@mcmaster.ca

Tiffany Reeves, Simon Fraser University
515 West Hastings Street
Vancouver, British Columbia V6B 5K3
Telephone: (778) 782-5679
E-mail: bchcp@sfu.ca
Website: www.childhealthpolicy.sfu.ca/index.html