| Popis: |
Nurse educators from a university setting and staff from the county health department collaborated to establish an innovative program to prevent repeated pregnancy in adolescents. Called Dollar-A-Day and patterned after the original in Denver, CO, the program was operated jointly for 5 years and today continues to operate under the auspices of the health department. Success of the venture is attributed to use of skills in assessment, building, managing, and evaluating, as described by Loxley (1997). These elements were used to construct a context for collaboration.This report describes a collaborative program for adolescent mothers designed to become a sustainable, permanent resource. The program, modeled after the "Dollar-A-Day" initiative, involves weekly meetings with adolescent mothers and weekly awards of $7 for avoiding a repeat pregnancy. This program began as a collaborative effort of health department nurses and members of the faculty of a nursing school. The program design applied Loxley's theory of collaboration (illuminating the relationships among structures, power, culture, and values through application of systems theory, social exchange theory, and cooperation theory). The core skills Loxley identified as necessary for collaboration were adopted by this program. "Assessment" involved reframing the perception of needs of the recipients and "mapping the terrain" (analyzing the overlaps and gaps, strengths and deficits, and resources of the collaborating agencies). "Building" involved creating structures, power, a culture, and values for the new initiative. The third skill, managing the process, was accomplished by open communication and information exchange. The final skill of evaluation involved 1) continuous evaluation through communication and weekly goal-setting exercises with the young mothers and 2) measuring the outcome for participants and for collaborative partners. Eventually, the goal of ending the collaboration and transferring the project to the county health department was achieved, and the program continues to operate successfully. |
