Mothers' ranking of clinical intervention strategies used to promote infant health.

PURPOSE: To support evidence-based practice for infant health promotion by determining mothers' preferences among eight clinical intervention strategies. METHOD: A sample of 138 mothers of 4-month-old infants who received care through a county health department used a card sort method to rank order intervention strategies and identified advantages and disadvantages of each method. FINDINGS: The mothers' rank ordering of the clinical intervention strategies, beginning with the most preferred, was: 1. Nurse home visitation; 2. Group session with mothers, led by a nurse; 3. Community lay worker home visitation; 4. Classes in the clinic; 5. Health diary; 6. Videotapes at home; 7. Brochures; and 8. Videotapes in the clinic. CONCLUSIONS: Intervention strategies that use interpersonal communication, including the opportunity for mothers to ask questions, were most preferred. Strategies that involve one-way messages to mothers were least preferred. Investment in strategies that do not appeal to mothers are likely be ineffective in promoting infant health and wasteful of health care dollars.

A decade of nursing leadership research.

A review of the published nursing leadership research from 1983 to 1993 is presented. The review identifies three categories of research: predicting leadership, leadership development, and leadership effectiveness. Comparisons are made with a previous research review. Recommendations for future research include the relationship between leader and follower, comparison studies of leaders in multiple settings, further analysis of mentorship, continued qualitative analysis, and quantitative research utilizing established instruments. As the new leadership roles of nurse leaders emerge in health care reform, so will new issues for future research.