Essential Nursing Care for Children and Young People

Theory, Policy and Practice

Chris Thurston

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9780415733847
• eBook ISBN: 9781317818984
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Health Care Delivery

Essential Nursing Care for Children and Young People is the definitive guide for all nursing and healthcare students and professionals caring for children and young people. Designed to meet the 2010 NMC competency standards for pre-registration nurses, the textbook supports you through the process of caring for children and young people with varied needs and conditions across all healthcare settings.

A practical, patient-centred approach is taken throughout, with the 'voices' of children, their families and their carers used to tie theoretical knowledge to the real experience of providing care. The inclusion of the latest research and health and social care policies ensures that you are fully in line with the latest clinical practice, whilst the book's activities and exercises allow you to regularly check your understanding and develop confidence during your journey from student to nursing professional.

Main features:

Course-Focused Approach – pedagogy and content designed specifically for all three years of the child nursing degree programme.

Contemporary Content – research note features and policy integrated throughout to give you instant access to the latest evidence-based practice.

Illustrated Throughout – this highly accessible text regularly uses pictures and diagrams to highlight key issues.

Voices – include authentic experiences of children, young people, parents, carers and professionals to help develop a patient-focused attitude to care.

Pertinent A&P – includes coverage of all relevant anatomy and physiology for child and young person nursing courses.

Practice Guidelines – provide practical guidance on everyday procedures for your quick reference.

Activities and Answers – allow you to check your knowledge and build confidence.

Specialist Authors – each chapter is written by leading experts in each area.

Essential Nursing Care for Children and Young People is the ideal main textbook for all undergraduate child and young person nursing students, as well as professionals wanting to ensure they are using the latest practice. This text is also relevant to any student or professional involved in the health and social care of children and young adults.

Chapter 1

Foundations of Children and Young People’s Nursing

Sue Collier

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Learning Outcomes

On completion of this chapter, the reader will be able to:

Explore historical perspectives of children’s nursing in order to understand the origins of professional values.

Critically explain the impact of policy and guidelines on children and young people’s nursing and ‘why children and young people’s nurses do what they do.’

Appraise frameworks of care and their appropriateness when caring for children and young people.

Critically explore the concept of the family and the principles of family-centred care and partnership when caring for children and young people.

Critically explore the impact of communication leading to a therapeutic relationship with the child or young person and their family.

Explore the development of the self as a developing children and young people’s nurse.

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Talking Point

‘Just over a quarter (26 per cent) of households with dependent children are single parent families, and there are 2 million single parents in Britain today. This figure has remained consistent since the mid-1990s.’

Office for National Statistics (2012)

‘Children’s nurses have always had to be creative to gain the cooperation of children.’

Crawford (2011)

‘Between April 2006 and March 2007, the total hospital admissions due to asthma reached 80,595 which cost the NHS an estimated £61 million.’

Asthma UK (2011)

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Introduction

This chapter seeks to place children and young people’s nursing into the context of contemporary healthcare during the 21st century, providing key information related to the professional values and the foundations of children and young people’s nursing. The children and young people’s nurse will be required to follow the guiding professional principles; to understand the underpinning theories; to assess, plan and implement care; to discern when care is not progressing appropriately and to build a therapeutic relationship with the child, young person, parents or carers. This requires effective communication, teamwork and decision making (see Chapter 15). In order to understand why we do what we do in children’s and young people’s nursing it is important to understand where the discipline has arisen.

As healthcare practitioners, children’s nurses are in a pivotal position to build a therapeutic relationship with the child, young person and their families. Effective communication and active listening are key to effective nursing care and documentation. The children and young people’s nurse is required to integrate professional values and directives into the evidence based care of children and young people. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (2008) domains of nursing have been integrated into this chapter to demonstrate the correlation with children’s nursing practice.

This case study will involve Rhys and his family to illustrate the issues children and young people face during they journey with asthma through healthcare. While the asthma journey through healthcare is relatively commonplace, the impact it has on each child or young person will differ, requiring individualised nursing assessments. Children and young people do not exist in isolation and have parents and carers who may wish to have a role in supporting and encouraging their offspring. The ethos of children’s nursing is working in family centred care and partnership with parents and carers. There are many perspectives to children’s nursing, including legal and ethical perspectives, professional, interprofessional practice and external partnerships. Children’s nursing must comply with key government policies and guidance.

Historical Perspectives of Children and Young People’s Nursing

If the historical perspectives of children’s nursing are explored in conjunction with the society of the day, it will allow some insight as to why some initiatives were successful while others clearly failed. Although contemporary society has changed, some of the issues have similarities with the past. Jolley (2011) has undertaken research into the history of children’s nursing giving valuable insight into the origins of children’s nursing, frequently explaining how external influences have helped to shape children’s nursing. Ramsay (2008) points out that children’s nursing is a comparatively recent specialism, traceable only to the 18th and 19th century yet Jolley (2011) identifies that all healthcare professions have existed for substantial periods of time. According to Lumsden (2010) professions have developed in ‘silos’ rather than in an integrated way. This means that each of the healthcare professions has established its ‘professional identity’, which shapes and influences service development and service issues (Figure 1.1). It may have been due to prevailing issues in society and political drivers at the time, as to whether children required a child-focused nurse to provide care. Jolley (2011) highlights that in order to understand what shapes the standards of care and the standards of the professional children’s nurse in contemporary nursing it is essential to consider the historical perspectives. Lumsden (2010) reports that during the 19th century the professionals had expertise in a specific area and were autonomous practitioners, but were both predominantly male and also unregulated, and compares this to a contemporary professional who works for an organisation in which there is professional regulation and should no longer be predominately led by males or upper classes. There is a tendency in contemporary children’s nursing for a predominantly female workforce.

Figure 1.1 Developing as a discipline

An insight to the way in which children were treated in society can be traced back to Thomas Coram in 1739. Coram spent a great deal of time exploring the world as a sea captain. Rams...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Brief Contents
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Chapter Summaries
• Authors
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter 1. Foundations of Children and Young People’s Nursing
• Chapter 2. Using Developmental Theories to Enhance Holistic Care
• Chapter 3. Health Promotion Needs of Children and Young People
• Chapter 4. Cultural Aspects for Children and Young People
• Chapter 5. Safeguarding Children and Young People
• Chapter 6. Caring for Children in a Variety of Settings
• Chapter 7. Caring for Children and Young People in the Medical Setting
• Chapter 8. Caring for Children and Young People in the Surgical Setting
• Chapter 9. Neonatal Nursing Care
• Chapter 10. Emergency Care of Children and Young People
• Chapter 11. The Challenges of Sexual Exploration for Young People
• Chapter 12. Mental Health and the Challenges of Mental Ill Health
• Chapter 13. The Challenges for Children and Young People with Learning Disability from Black Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) Background
• Chapter 14. Children and Young People with Life-Limiting Conditions
• Chapter 15. Preparation for Professional Practice
• Chapter 16. Transferring to Adult Services for Young People with Long-Term Conditions
• Chapter 17. Research with Children and Young People
• Glossary
• Index