Objective: Explore current maternal and infant nutrition education practices and family medicine primary care providers' views on a group care model to deliver nutrition education to mother-infant dyads.
Design: In-depth interviews.
Setting: Family medicine clinics in 1 Midwestern US hospital system.
Participants: Family medicine primary care providers (n = 17) who regularly see infants during well-baby visits.
Phenomenon of interest: Current maternal and infant nutrition education practices; views on ideal way to deliver nutrition education to mother-infant dyads; feedback on group care model to deliver nutrition education to mother-infant dyads.
Analysis: Audio recordings transcribed verbatim and coded using conventional content analysis.
Results: Family medicine primary care providers are limited in the ability to provide maternal and infant nutrition education and desire a different approach. Group care was the preferred method; it was shared most frequently as the ideal approach to nutrition education delivery and participants reacted favorably when presented with this model. However, there were many concerns with group care (eg, moderating difficult conversations, program implementation logistics, sufficient group volume, and interruption in patient-provider relationship).
Conclusion and implications: Family medicine primary care providers desire a different approach to deliver nutrition education to mother-infant dyads in clinic. A group care model may be well-accepted among family medicine primary care providers but issues must be resolved before implementation. These results could inform future group care implementation studies and influence provider buy-in.
Keywords: family practice; group care model; infant care; maternal health; qualitative research.
Copyright © 2019 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.