Evidence Tools
MCHbest. Medical Home: Family Centered Care.

Overview. Healthcare providers benefit from training and education on family-centered care.[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] Whether it is something as simple as a shared reading program among medical students,[2] an educational intervention practiced by nurses,[4] or a specific curriculum for primary care providers,[1, 5, 6] when medical professionals are exposed to the tenants of family-centerd care, they have a positive shift in their attitudes and demonstrate progressive changes in their practice.[2, 3, 4, 5] The most common outcome of education on family-centered care is in communication skills development.[1,3, 5] The most impactful educational programs are those that incorporate the family experience directly in the training opportunity.[1, 5]

Evidence. Emerging Evidence. Strategies with this rating typically trend positive and have good potential to work. They often have a growing body of recent, but limited research that documents effects. However, further study is needed to confirm effects, determine which types of health behaviors and conditions these interventions address, and gauge effectiveness across different population groups. (Clarifying Note: The WWFH database calls this "mixed evidence").

Access the peer-reviewed evidence through the MCH Digital Library or related evidence source. (Read more about understanding evidence ratings).

Source. Peer-Reviewed Literature

Outcome Components. This strategy has shown to have impact on the following outcomes (Read more about these categories):

• Quality of Care. This strategy promotes the degree to which healthcare services meet established standards aimed at achieving optimal health outcomes.
• Patient Experience of Care. This study improves individuals' perceptions, feelings, and satisfaction with the healthcare services they receive.

Detailed Outcomes. For specific outcomes related to each study supporting this strategy, access the peer-reviewed evidence and read the Intervention Results for each study.

Intervention Type. Collaboration (Read more about intervention types and levels as defined by the Public Health Intervention Wheel).

Intervention Level. Community-Focused

Examples from the Field. There are currently no ESMs that use this strategy. As Title V agencies begin to incorporate this strategy into ESMs, examples will be available here. Until then, you can search for ESMs that have similar intervention components in the ESM database.

Sample ESMs. Here are sample ESMs to use as models for your own measures using the Results-Based Accountability framework (for suggestions on how to develop programs to support this strategy, see The Role of Title V in Adapting Strategies).