Background Child and family health nurses (CFHNs) provide care and support to families with children in their first 5 years to ensure that they have the best possible start in life by supporting their health, wellbeing, capacity and resilience. Evidence supports the existence of critical development windows for this age group, with these window periods continuing to close regardless of external events (NSW Health 2019).

South Eastern Sydney Local Health District (SESLHD) child and family health nursing services offer a variety of services to families that are mostly face-to-face contact. With the COVID‑19 pandemic, access to face-to-face child and family health nursing services in order to provide care and support to families created challenges where face-to-face contact was comprised. Telehealth, including video conferencing and telephone support, was identified as an effective method to bridge this gap between client demand and provider availability.

Aim The aim of the study was to describe what occurred and what worked best when implementing telehealth in a child and family health nursing service during the COVID‑19 pandemic between April and September 2020 to inform future practice. Changes in client uptake of services during this 6-month period of lockdown were compared to a pre-pandemic 6-month period. Mothers’ perceptions, satisfaction and perceived benefits of using telehealth services as well as the clinician experiences of implementing telehealth service provision were examined.

Methods This is a case study of a quality improvement (QI) activity of a service change using mixed methods. Data on the number of consultations for both 6-month periods was collected from electronic medical records (eMR). Mothers and staff were surveyed for feedback on the change to a predominantly telehealth service.

Findings The child and family health nursing service maintained the same number of consultations throughout the pandemic as the previous year for the same period. A total of 90% of the mothers who responded had no issues accessing the telehealth service. Approximately 80% felt the telehealth experience helped them to make decisions about their needs, their child’s needs and their family’s needs, and 92% would likely to very likely recommend telehealth. Identified benefits included: being safer due to COVID‑19; being convenient; saving time; being able to network with other parents; and accessing professional support. Some barriers included technical issues and staff experiencing communication concerns with clients. Interestingly, 73% of mother respondents would prefer a face-to-face consultation over a telehealth consultation in the absence of a pandemic.

Conclusion Utilising telehealth that includes video conferencing and telephone support has been identified as an effective method to bridge the gap between client demand and provider availability in response to the COVID‑19 pandemic. While the surveys identified many benefits of telehealth, this study has shown telehealth should not been seen as an alternative form of healthcare, but instead should be integrated within existing child and family health nursing services.