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More frequent visits to child health nurse

Posted By sad to leave

"More frequent visits to child health nurse"

About: Child and Adolescent Community Health

(as a parent/guardian),

We have been visiting our child health nurse ever since our baby was born. The first visit we were lucky enough to have her come to our home after I was fresh out of hospital post caesarean.

We just had our last visit (3-4 month check) due to the fact we will miss the next visits as we move overseas. I was hoping to have one more visit with our nurse but she said the next one isn't until 8 months of age and they are looking at changing it to 12 months!

In my opinion there needs to be more visits after this 3-4 month check. One when solids start for example, some parents, like me, can be quite nervous about starting solids. What to feed? How often? Plenty of questions I'm sure they would love to ask throughout the stages of growth, especially in these crucial young months. Sometimes parents just like to go just to hear that their baby is healthy and they are doing a great job of raising them. Or they feel they can open up to their child health nurse about how they are feeling at home. There is so much stuff that can be covered in these checks - just checking that you and baby are on track.

I will be sad to leave our child health nurse - she has been great, makes you feel very relaxed.

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Responses

Response from Trulie Pinnegar, A/Director, Clinical Services Community Health, Child and Adolescent Health Service - WA 7 years ago
Trulie Pinnegar
A/Director, Clinical Services Community Health,
Child and Adolescent Health Service - WA

Submitted on 12/05/2017 at 2:09 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 2:17 PM

Dear sad to leave,

Thank you for taking the time to share how positive and valuable your experience with your local child health nurse has been. Community child health nurses provide important services that support families to raise happy, healthy children.

If any child health queries or worries about your baby arise before your move overseas, you are welcome to attend a drop-in clinic at your local child health clinic or contact your child health nurse – who is still there and available to see you when you need her.

We acknowledge that parents have concerns about many issues that occur between scheduled checks requiring the reassurance, support and advice provided by your community child nurse. By introducing changes to our current child health services we are aiming to provide a responsive and flexible service to all families, as their needs arise.

There will be some changes to the Purple Book child health check ages, alongside a focus on providing additional appointments and increasing the availability of group sessions such as parent talks on starting solids. More information about the changes is available at www.healthywa.wa.gov.au/childhealth

Best wishes for your move overseas,

Trulie Pinnegar,

A/Director Clinical Services Community Health

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Response from Lisa Brennan, Executive Director, Child and Adolescent Community Health, Child and Adolescent Health Service - WA 7 years ago
Lisa Brennan
Executive Director, Child and Adolescent Community Health,
Child and Adolescent Health Service - WA

Submitted on 12/05/2017 at 2:09 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 2:17 PM

Dear sad to leave,

Communication from parents and families is very important to CACH as it assists us in adjusting our service delivery to best respond to the needs of the community.

It is lovely to hear that the experience for you and your baby with your community child health nurse has been so helpful and supportive.

I hope the information from our A/Director of Clinical Services clarifies for you that the changes to community child health services will provide an even more positive and flexible assistance to families when their need is greatest, and that your community child health nurse is there to assist you with any concerns you may have with your little one.

Kind regards

Lisa Brennan

Executive Director, Child and Adolescent Community Health

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