| dc.description.abstract | In Norway, public health nurses have a long history of working with health promotion and, in particular, in relation to maternal and child health. Appropriate feeding practices are of fundamental importance for growth, development and health among infants and young children. As the number of children from immigrant families in Norway increases, more public health nurses are working with families whose cultural backgrounds are markedly different from their own. According to some studies, immigrant mothers experience the infant feeding advice provided by public health nurses as limited. These studies describe inadequate advice about the benefits of breastfeeding and the introduction of solid food, specifically, and about infant and child nutrition in general.
This study therefore explores current public health nurses’ perspectives on and experiences with cross cultural service provision and communication regarding infant and child nutrition.
A qualitative study design and in-depth interviews and focus group discussions in particular, were employed to investigate this. The data were collected over a period of four months, in three municipalities in Norway (Oslo, Akershus and Østfold), where the prevalence of immigrants is the highest in the country. Research participant were recruited from nine different maternal and child health clinics, and consisted of 24 certified public health nurses.
Findings from this study show that language is perceived as a barrier that leads to a superficial level of communication and cause time constrains; lack of a common understanding of cultural knowledge and food pose as an additional barrier; interpreters are fundamental; visual aids strengthen cross-cultural communication when a common language is missing; booklets on infant and child nutrition are used as complements to verbal advice; group meetings are perceived to have potential for strengthening nutrition counseling with immigrant mothers in particular.
Based on findings from this study, we suggest the following: cultural education for public health nurses, clear interpreter guidelines/education, providing public health nurses with iPads and access to visual nutrition tools, translating and re-working the booklet ‘Food for Infants’ and making it available on the internet, and acting on public health nurses suggestion regarding the value of providing cross-cultural group meetings for all mothers. The study concludes that such measures are pertinent for strengthening cross-cultural communication regarding infant and child nutrition.
Key words: Public health nurses, Immigrant mothers, cross-cultural service provision, Infant and child nutrition, Qualitative, Interview, Focus group discussion. | eng |