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The relationship between mothers' health beliefs and use of well-baby services among a poor, minority, high-risk population is reported. Data were collected from 61 black mothers attending a maternal-child clinic by interviews at the first and sixth months after the birth of their infants. The analysis focused on four health beliefs (susceptibility, severity, benefits, and efficacy) and two health behaviors (clinic visits and immunizations during the first 6 months). Although mothers' health beliefs were not predictive of clinic visits, health beliefs at the sixth month accounted for 30% of the variance in the number of immunizations. This relationship was dominated by perceived efficacy of immunizations and perceived benefits of well-baby services. The findings indicate a need to consider the nature and extent of possible changes in relationships between health beliefs and health behaviors over time.

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The purpose of this paper is to address several questions and issues about the clinical specialist role in community health nursing. A brief history of the development of the clinical specialist role sets the background for a discussion of how the community health nurse specialist fits within advanced practice nursing. The rationale for including the community health nurse clinical specialist role with other specialist roles is presented. The purpose and importance of certification at the advanced practice level in community health nursing are presented. Continued discussion about these and other issues of importance for the specialty is encouraged.

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The purpose of the study reported in this article was to describe the perceptions of families about services they received from multiple health and social service agencies. The conceptual framework of the Interagency Collaboration Model was used to guide the descriptive study. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 12 families who had received services from at least 3 agencies in the year before data collection. Results of the study showed that families had an average of 5.6 services over the year before the interviews were conducted. Family incomes ranged from totally inadequate to mostly adequate. Education of the participants ranged from 6th grade to some college. Most services were health-related. Interviews revealed that agency personnel were aware of other agencies, according to families' reports. Domain similarity did not appear to be a characteristic of the agencies in this study.

This article provides information about caseload management, which was one of a group of six competencies identified by nurse administrators as needed by new baccalaureate graduates. Caseload management is an important skill for nurses who work with caseloads of patients or clients (e.g., home health nurses, public health nurses, case managers, ambulatory care nurses). Because inadequate information about caseload management is contained in community health nursing textbooks, continuing education and staff development programs need to include caseload management skills to improve the efficiency and quality of nursing care.