Community neonatal nursing work.
BACKGROUND: A neonatal community nursing service may help families to cope with the early transfer of small, vulnerable infants to home. The previous literature has relied on self-reports to explore this kind of work. AIM: This paper reports a study exploring the work of a community neonatal nursing team in order to describe the strategies and interventions used to support families of preterm infants. METHOD: A qualitative case study design was adopted. Data were collected using fieldwork observations, semi-structured interviews and documentary analysis with a team of four community neonatal nurses. A nursing model of transition was explored as a possible framework for practice. FINDINGS: Thematic data analysis yielded two broad themes: Working with Mothers and Working with Others. Subcategories of Working with Mothers consisted of Baby Well; Mum Happy; Keeping in Touch and One of the Family. Working with Others focussed on multidisciplinary liaison activities. DISCUSSION: The complexity of nursing work was interdependent with maternal caregiving and dependent upon effective liaison with other health care professionals. The nursing model of transition requires further development to offer a sufficiently coherent practice model to direct neonatal nursing care delivery.