Dropping out of maternal and child home visits.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between nurse and client characteristics and the reason for client termination from public health nursing maternal and child home visits. The results indicate that clients who dropped out of services received more contacts from the nurses, missed more appointments with the nurses, and were given advice from the nurses on more topics. They also differed from clients who continued with services until the nursing care plan goals were met in reference to marital status, mental illness, source of payment for services, and use of WIC and food stamps. Nurses whose clients were more likely to continue until goals were met were higher in conscientiousness, learned more from experience, and learned less from coworkers or learning on their own. They also worked more hours per week. These findings have implications for practice and research.