The Institution Enters the Family Home: Home Visits in Sweden to New Parents by the Child Health Care Nurse

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate interactional patterns in the dialogue that occurs during home visits of the nurse to new parents, to find out whether there are similarities between home visits and visits to the child health care centers, and to discuss this in relation to what is emphasized as important in home visits. Audiotaped conversations of encounters during 5 home visits to new parents and interviews with parents and nurses were collected and analyzed qualitatively. Results show that the interactions were orchestrated by the nurse, and operated on an agenda that was task-oriented. The interaction was dominated by the nurse, and thus was asymmetrical. It seemed that the nurse was attentive to what the parents brought up in the discussions and responded to their worries very thoroughly, in accordance with the ideology. However, sometimes the parents were not even involved in the nurse's activities.