Investigating how health visitors define vulnerability
Abstract
The paper outlines the findings of a research project that sought to identify the components within health visitors' definitions of vulnerability and the influence these had on subsequent health visitor interventions with families within the community.
Twelve health visitors took part in semistructured interviews using a modification of the Critical Incident Technique. Ethical approval was gained from the ethics committees of the university and both community NHS trusts. Qualitative analysis identified the presence of specific themes, highlighting the features that informed the definition of vulnerability and the health visitors' subsequent actions. Vulnerability constituted a concept given to the identification of specific micro and macro levels of 'need' including social isolation, family size and composition and accommodation limitations.
The health visitors demonstrated an ability to articulate and justify their actions and make rational clinical decisions based on personal knowledge and experience. Their actions constituted a three-stage cyclical process in which an interpretation of the situation preceded the implementation and evaluation of the interventions