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An empowerment approach to needs assessment in health visiting practice
Author(s) -
HOUSTON ANNA M.,
COWLEY SARAH
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of clinical nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.94
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1365-2702
pISSN - 0962-1067
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2702.2002.00637.x
Subject(s) - empowerment , project commissioning , compromise , nursing , general partnership , visitor pattern , health care , public relations , health promotion , accountability , medicine , psychology , sociology , public health , business , publishing , computer science , political science , social science , finance , law , programming language
• This paper examines the usefulness of an integrated approach to needs assessment using an empowerment framework, within a health visitor/client interaction, in the home setting. • It is intended to demonstrate the existence of a flexible approach to assessing need that is based on research about necessary processes for carrying out health visiting. • The design of the tool described in this paper allows the use of professional judgement as well as fulfilling commissioning requirements to address health outcomes. • Health promotion and empowerment are central to health visiting practice and should be reflected in the way needs are assessed. • Many NHS trusts have introduced a system of targeting and prioritizing health visiting through a system of questioning to assess needs. This may reveal the work that health visitors do, but may also inhibit the open, listening approach required for client empowerment. • Different methods of assessing need can be used that do not compromise the commissioning requirements, the health visitor's duty of care or professional accountability. • The empowerment approach is key to the philosophy of health visiting. • There are ways of approaching needs assessment that do not compromise the ethos of partnership‐working in a health promoting way.