Family health nursing and empowering relationships.

PURPOSE

To examine how empowerment, as an ideology and a practice of teaching and learning, was understood and applied by public health nurses (PHNs) in health education with child bearing and child rearing families.

METHOD

Feminist poststructuralism was used to guide data collection and analysis. In-depth, individual interviews were conducted with three mothers and three PHNs and explored the different perspectives held by mothers and PHNs during a home visit.

FINDINGS

Moments of conflict, contradiction, affirmation, and agreement highlighted various empowering relations. Individual choice and recognition of knowledge and power exemplified how both mothers and PHNs used their "agency" to position themselves into a particular relationship. The analysis includes five sections: (a) mother's perceptions of PHNs, (b) normalization as problematic: the good/bad dichotomy, (c) professional/expert: the balance of power, (d) working the relationship, and (e) reflections on empowerment.

CONCLUSION

The information gathered from this studyprovides a rich understanding of the nurses' educational practices with new mothers.