Child Nursing Essay

Child nursing is a varied role it can involve anything frim caring for a sick newborn to an adolescent involved in an accident. These nurses does not focus just on the children that are their patients but also the parents or guardians of the child. In addition NHS Careers states that “They must understand how a healthy child develops towards adulthood and know how to minimise impact of illness or hospital admission on the child.” (NHS Careers 2006) This knowledge allows the nurses to understand the fundamentals aspects of a healthy child and to allow nurses to notice the warning signs within a child when treating them. A child nurse needs to be aware of other aspects of a child’s life such as their social, cultural, and family circumstances

Within the role of a children’s nurse non- verbal communication skills is essential as children cannot always communicate what symptoms they have or how they are feeling. Furthermore nurses need to be able to communicate to patients and parents/guardians what care is being provided to ensure that everyone has an understanding on what is happening. A confident nurse is essential in regards of dealing with relatives in distress and being able to ensure all situations are dealt with professionally and to ensure that nurses are confident in the decisions that they make. The ability to answer questions and offer advice is a key with a child’s nurse as nurses are the most frequent point of contact for patients and parents and guardians so they must be able to ensure they know all of the relevant information that can ensure the correct information is available to answer any questions, also parents may ask for advice on how to cope with certain situations so a nurse must be prepared to give the correct advice for the situation. This could include sharing knowledge with patients or family and friends. In addition to this other members of the care team of a patient may have questions surrounding the care that has been provided to the patient, this is essential to staff handovers. Good observation skills is the most important skill that a nurse requires as

Each university has different entry requirements but the general requirements are 5 GCSEs C or above plus A Levels or equivalents such as Access to HE Diploma either science or health based. Addition to this most universities require numeracy and literacy tests to be passed and DBS and Occupational Health checks need to be passed. This degree is 50% theory and 50 % practical which consists of being on placements in a clinical setting and community setting. Four main aspects will be learned within this degree such as professional values, interpersonal skills and communication, nursing practice, decision making and leadership and team working. On completion of this degree registration to the Nursing and Midwifery Council can be obtained to become a registered nurse. There are many postgraduate opportunities within this field such as Postgraduate Diploma in School Nursing which duration is 2 years, Postgraduate Diploma in Advanced Neonatal Nurse Practitioner which is a 2 year course or a Masters in Child Nursing which is a 3 year course. The entry requirement for these courses is to have a 2.1 or above degree and be a registered nurse. These postgraduate courses can be included in the requirement of a nurse to undergo continual professional development whilst being a practicing nurse. Which consists of having to undertake 35 hours of learning