Public Employee Press

Family Health Nurses
A helping hand for new moms

By ALFREDO ALVARADO

Luckily, Tramaine Charles likes to read. Pregnant with her first child, the 21-year-old picked up a brochure about the Nurse-Family Partnership Program at Queens Hospital Center and called the number to find out more.

Six weeks later Charles gave birth to a healthy baby girl. The new mother credits the innovative program and Public Health Nurse Eulanda Greene for her successful transition to full-time mom.

“I tell everybody about the program,” said Charles, who lives in South Ozone Park, Queens. “I’m a great marketing person.” The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene launched the Nurse-Family Partnership Program in 2003 as a pilot program in Jamaica, Queens, with 100 families and four Public Health Nurses, who belong to Local 436. The Queens neighborhood had one of the highest rates of infant mortality in the city.

Any woman, regardless of her age, who is pregnant with her first baby and is not past her 28th week, and who meets low-income requirements is eligible to enroll in the program.
The Public Health Nurses, with a caseload of no more than 25 women, visit their clients every week or two during pregnancy and continue working with the mother until the baby is two years old. The PHNs provide a wide range of services that are critical to the new mothers having healthy pregnancies and getting their children off to a good start.

PHN Greene, one of the four original nurses in the pilot program, works closely with Charles and her six-week-old daughter, Madison. During her visits Greene assists Charles with postnatal care, tips on breastfeeding, counseling on diet and nutrition, planning child care services and exploring job and career opportunities for the future. With her parents living in Guyana, Charles readily admits that what Greene provides is simply invaluable. “I don’t know what I would have done without her,” says the 21-year-old mother about the Local 436 member.

DOHMH studied the Nurse-Family Partnership Program to determine its cost-effectiveness and found several results that were encouraging. The program has contributed to reducing reported child abuse by 50 percent, cutting visits to hospital emergency rooms by 35 percent, and raising the number of participants living with their partners by 34 percent.

The Health Dept. hopes to eventually make the Nurse-Family Partnership program available to all low-income, first-time mothers and families throughout the city.

“There’s a great sense of satisfaction in seeing how the program has grown and evolved,” said Beatrice Adam, one of the four original PHNs who started at the Jamaica-based clinic in 2003.

The program also helps first-time dads like Marlon Thompson, Madison’s father. “Everyone was giving us advice in the beginning and you don’t know what to believe,” said Thompson. “So we just pick up the phone and ask Ms. Greene.”

For more information, call 311 and ask for the Nurse-Family Partnership program.