CaNE Pilot Project

To deliver the Nurse-Family Partnership® (NFP) intervention, public health nurses and their supervisors must complete core NFP education. In 2016, the Middlesex London Health Unit, in collaboration with researchers from McMaster University, received funding to develop, pilot, and evaluate a Canadian model of NFP education for nurses and supervisors from four Ontario public health units.

Building on foundational educational materials and resources provided by the NFP National Service Office (US), the Family-Nurse Partnership (FNP) National Units in England and Scotland, and from the NFP program in British Columbia, combined with research findings from the British Columbia Healthy Connections Process Evaluation, a Canadian model of NFP education was developed.

The goal was for this educational program to be:

• Evidence-based;
• Theoretically informed;
• Reflect the values and principles of the Canadian public health system of services;
• Support the development of public health nurse competencies; and
• Be sustainable (e.g., able to be delivered to NFP public health nurses and supervisors across Canada in a cost-effective and flexible manner).

The overarching goal of the evaluation components of the CaNE project were:

1. To explore public health nurses’ and supervisors’ perceptions of the acceptability of this new NFP education program;
2. To understand how this education supports teams to implement the intervention with fidelity to the NFP core model elements within their local communities. The project measured fidelity to five key indicators:
• public health nurse and supervisor caseloads
• duration of the program
• service dosage of the program
• content of home visits
• client eligibility

In addition, participant feedback was sought regarding content and delivery methods, effectiveness of the model in improving knowledge, skills and attitudes, and integration of new skills into professional practice. The project was completed in December 2018.