title: Public health nurses tailor interventions for families at risk.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To use structured clinical data from public health nurse (PHN) documentation to describe client risk, to describe family home visiting interventions, including tailoring, and to assess the associations between client risk and intervention tailoring.
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospective cohort design. A cohort of 486 family home visiting clients who received at least 3 visits from PHNs in a local Midwest public health agency (2000-2005).
  
  
  METHODS
  Omaha System variables documenting assessments, interventions, and outcomes. A risk index was created to identify low- and high-risk clients. Descriptive and inferential methods were used to describe interventions, and to assess intervention tailoring between groups.
  
  
  METHODS
  Routine PHN family home visiting practice.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The risk index meaningfully discriminated between groups. PHNs provided more visits and interventions to clients in the high-risk group, with variations in problem, category, and target by group, demonstrating that PHNs tailored interventions to address specific client needs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Standardized terminologies and structured clinical data are useful tools to support PHN practice, and may be useful to advance health care quality research, program evaluation, policy development, and population health outcomes.
authors: University of Minnesota School of Nursing, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. mons0122@umn.edu
authors: Karen A
authors: KA
authors: Monsen
authors: David M
authors: DM
authors: Radosevich
authors: Madeleine J
authors: MJ
authors: Kerr
authors: Jayne A
authors: JA
authors: Fulkerson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006792:House Calls; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011637:Public Health Nursing / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015980:Public Health Practice / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult