Personal Characteristics of Effective Home Visitors

Home visitation continues to be a common social service delivery strategy. In recent years, early childhood home visitation is experiencing a boon in popularity. Home visitors empower parents and are the lynchpin of home visitation programs but little research is available on these helpers. This qualitative study, conducted in the Midwest, examines a small (n = 11) purposive sample of home visitors who stood out to their administrators as excelling in their practice. Data include a) open-ended interviews with home visitors; b) home visiting situational vignettes; and c) a quantitative empathy scale. Results indicate that the home visitors possessed some important similarities, including the ability to form and maintain empathic relationships, a self-awareness allowing for reflective practice, an attitude of lifelong learning, and a belief in the ability of their clients to change by relying on their strengths and recognizing the importance of the environment in change efforts. The description of the personal characteristics of these home visitors provides a constructive foundation for future research, new information to home visitation programs that could be valuable in the staffing process, and insights for the training of home visitors or other professionals working with families through fieldwork.