Certified nurse-midwives and health promotion and disease prevention: Results of a national survey

Abstract

Certified nurse-midwives were surveyed to determine to what extent important health promotion and disease prevention (HP/DP) behaviors were part of their lifestyles ( n = 132, 59% response). The survey also assessed beliefs about HP/DP practices, the extent to which HP/DP is incorporated into daily patient care activities, confidence in abilities to provide patient education, and outcome expectations of HP/DP efforts. Respondents were involved in nurse-midwifery practice either in educational institutions, hospitals, clinics, health departments, private settings, or health maintenance organizations. Most of the respondents are good health role models who perceive themselves as important providers of HP/DP services. They routinely provide a broad range of HP/DP education to their patients. Although they indicated confidence in their abilities to educate patients about needed lifestyle changes, they reported an overall lack of confidence that their patients actually would make behavioral changes to reduce health risks.