Working with teenage mothers and their babies, Hawke’s Bay Plunket clinical leader Nicky Skerman was concerned to know whether the Well Child/Tamariki Ora service was adequately meeting the needs of the parents and their youngsters.

The Royal New Zealand Plunket Society is the largest provider contracted by the Ministry of Health to deliver the Well Child/Tamariki Ora service, which is free to all children in New Zealand from birth to five years of age. 

What the young mothers told Nicky formed the basis of recommendations she took back to Plunket and developed into a business plan for an improved service.

Now, a year on and funded by a $90,000 Vodafone New Zealand Foundation grant, Nicky is leading a pilot extended Well Child/Tamariki Ora service delivered to teenage mothers.  This begins a month prior to the babies’ due date, and the expectant mothers are assigned a specialist nurse whose particular focus is teenagers.   

All this is the rare, direct and immediate outcome from her EIT Master of Nursing thesis research.

 Nicky, who received an EIT-sponsored Hawke’s Bay District Health Board Nurse of the Year Award in 2010, undertook the research for the thesis for her Master of Nursing thesis.  The study is based on the analysis of data derived from discussions with two focus groups of mothers aged 16-19 who attended William Colenso College’s teenage parent unit.

The findings reveal these teenagers weren’t well engaged with the Well Child/Tamariki Ora service and required support specific to their age and circumstances. 

The research identified the need for better facilitation of the transition from their lead maternity carer to a Well Child/Tamariki Ora service provider, better communication and nurse/client relationships, correct and consistent parenting information, including practical demonstrations, and for nurses to be respectful and caring of their clients despite their age.