In 2011, I finished my Masters of Nursing where I asked teenage mums what they wanted from the Well Child/ Tamariki Ora service especially around their engagement with the Service. I found they weren’t well engaged with the service but they did really want a nurse who cared about them, wouldn’t judge them and would give them the information and help they needed.

My recommendations were for an extended Plunket service to get just that. I was chosen to receive a Vodafone Foundation World of Difference Scholarship so with this and in collaboration with Plunket a funded one year pilot was set up in the Hawkes Bay. One specialised Plunket nurse visited 21 teen mums, who got two extra antenatal nurse visits at 36 and 38 weeks gestation and one extra postnatal visit.

The results were very positive. Our group had improved results for breastfeeding, immunisation, and many more referrals on to other agencies and services than the control group (teenage mothers with babies born at the same time as the pilot group but without the three extra visits)

Plunket in Hawkes Bay has now made this a permanent programme, and they are taking our Young Parent Team model to other parts of the country for mothers who are identified as being particularly vulnerable.

Part of my job now, as Plunket clinical leader for the region, is to oversee the Young Parent Team, which has two Plunket nurses and a kaiâwhina – a qualified Mâori community health worker who supports the baby’s mother and whânau.

It’s really satisfying to see the results of my research put into practice. The better statistics for these vulnerable families are because they have one nurse they know and trust who is an important part of their lives.

Interview and photo first published in Kai Tiaki Nursing New Zealand, March 2015.

For more information, please contact;

Nicky Skerman

Plunket Clinical Leader

027 572 0482

nicky.skerman@plunket.org.nz