Children's Nurses Research Articles

Neurological observations in infants, children and young people: part two.

Neurological observations are a vital part of the assessment of infants, children and young people with a suspected or confirmed acquired brain injury (ABI). They are designed to identify neurological deterioration and inform the management of ABIs. Children's nurses may perform many of these neurological observations, including by using tools such as the AVPU scale, the Glasgow Coma Scale, pupillary response and limb assessment. This is the second of two articles that aim to encourage accuracy and consistency when performing neurological observations in infants, children and young people with a suspected or confirmed ABI to optimise their care. The article explains how to undertake various elements of a neurological assessment, how often to perform neurological observations, when to escalate concerns and why it is important to use family-centred care.

Neurological observations in infants, children and young people: part one.

Caring for infants, children and young people with an acquired brain injury (ABI) can be challenging due to their developing brain and reliance on parents and caregivers. It is essential that children's nurses are able to perform effective neurological observations, because these can identify deterioration and inform the management of patients with an ABI. This is the first of two articles that aim to encourage accuracy and consistency when undertaking neurological observations in infants, children and young people with an ABI to optimise their care. This first article details the pathophysiology, types and causes of ABIs and explains the potential complications that can occur following such injuries.

Evaluation of service user-led workshops in children's palliative care education.

Children's nurses report feeling unprepared when caring for children with life-limiting conditions and their families, while the value of including service users in the provision of nursing education is increasingly recognised. This small-scale service evaluation examined the effect on learning of service user-led workshops as part of a module for final-year children's nursing students and post-registration children's nurses. The workshops focused on the experience of children's palliative care and child bereavement from the parents' perspective. Findings from evaluation data indicated high levels of satisfaction with the workshops and identified three themes: safe space, shift in perspective and enhancing practice. A model of service user facilitated learning describes how these themes can enable learning about children's palliative care. This evaluation suggests that the involvement of service users as partners in healthcare education can be transformative, enabling children's nursing students to examine their own perspectives and consider ways to enhance their future practice.

Limited Choices: Mable Jones, a Black Children's Nurse in a Northern White Household

Limited Choices: Mable Jones, a Black Children's Nurse in a Northern White Household

Children's care: family centred but child focused.

Family-centred care is a widely used but loosely defined model of care often used in children's nursing. Although this allows for flexibility in its application, it also means that nurses can have very different ideas about its meaning. Recent decisions about the implementation of the COVID-19 vaccination programme for children under the age of 16 years in the UK and other countries have further confused this, as it has brought into question the relative position of children and their families in the decision-making process. Over time, the legislative and social positions of children have changed. Children are increasingly seen as being separate but related to their family, with an emphasis on their own human, legal, and ethical rights, including allowing children to choose the type of support they require for their care to reduce any undue stress. This article puts these into a current and contextual framework to better help nurses understand the historical as well as the contemporary reasons for the status of family-centred care today.

Impact of a dietitian in general practice: paediatric food allergy.

Food allergy in infants and young children places a significant burden on primary care. This study evaluated a dietetic-led paediatric food allergy service, which attempts to provide more rapid access to the dietitian and reduce the need for general practitioner (GP) and secondary care appointments. Two community dietetic services for children referred with food allergy were compared. The first was dietetic-led care where dietitians train community children's nurses to recognise potential cases of food allergy, undertake basic diagnostic assessment and subsequently refer to the dietitian. The other was a more traditional dietetic community service where patients were referred predominantly by the GP or secondary care. In dietetic-led care 86 patients were seen, compared to 96 in dietetic community care. Dietetic-led care received fewer referrals from the GP, 36% versus 67% (p < 0.001); GP appointments for allergy-related conditions prior to dietetic referral were lower, 3 versus 6 visits (p = 0.001); and input from secondary care was also lower, 8 versus 25 patients (p = 0.002) compared with dietetic community care. Children referred to dietetic-led care were younger, 78% <6 months versus 40% (p < 0.001) in dietetic community care. Dietetic-led care describes a model that has the potential to reduce GP and secondary care appointments, identify patients more quickly and reduce the time to receive dietetic input, thereby resolving symptoms more quickly and reducing prescribed medications. This model demonstrates the importance of integrated care and multidisciplinary working, offering a solution to reducing GP workload while maintaining or improving patient care.

Analysis of the Clinical Effect of Visual Electrophysiological Examination Combined with Targeted Health Education Nursing in Children.

To analyze the clinical effect of visual electrophysiological examination combined with targeted health education nursing in children. A total of 100 children who underwent visual electrophysiological examinations in the Ophthalmology Department of our hospital from March 2019 to March 2021 were selected as the study subjects. The children were randomly divided into two groups, the control group and the observation group, with 50 children in each group. Children in the control group received routine nursing, while those in the observation group received a combination of routine nursing and targeted health education nursing. The nursing satisfaction, degree of cooperation with examination, examination time, changes in the psychological state, and the stress response of the children and their families were then compared and analyzed. The nursing satisfaction of the observation group was higher than that of the control group (94.0% vs. 80.0%) (P < 0.05). The degree to which children in the observation group cooperated with examination was higher than that of children in the control group (96.0% vs. 78.0%) (P < 0.05). The average time spent on VEP and ERG examinations by children in the observation group was 6.33 ± 1.37 hours and 55.25 ± 4.92 hours, respectively, significantly lower than that of 12.45 ± 1.02 hours and 70.36 ± 5.31 hours, respectively, spent by children in the control group (P < 0.05). After intervention, the depression, hostility, anxiety, and obsession scores of children in the observation group were all significantly lower than those of children in the control group (P < 0.05). There was an increase in the heart rate, respiratory rate, and mean arterial pressure in children from both groups, but the magnitude of increase in the observation group was much smaller than that in the control group (P < 0.05). The combination of visual electrophysiological examination and targeted health education nursing in children has a remarkable clinical effect. It improves the children's degree of comfort as well as the parents' degree of satisfaction. It also reduces the time spent on examinations, facilitates the smooth completion of examinations, and improves the efficiency of examinations. This nursing method is one that merits more widespread promotion and clinical application.

Retracted: Analysis of the Clinical Effect of Visual Electrophysiological Examination Combined with Targeted Health Education Nursing in Children

Retracted: Analysis of the Clinical Effect of Visual Electrophysiological Examination Combined with Targeted Health Education Nursing in Children

What is the role of the children's community nurse in childhood cancer care?

Aim: To highlight the experiences of children's community nurses (CCNs) within cancer care and to identify their day-to-day roles and responsibilities. Method: Questionnaires were completed by 12 CCNs and oncology specialist nurses within London, these were analysed using a coding software. Findings: Children and their families perceive CCNs as knowledgeable, happy and friendly professionals, essential in reducing hospital admissions and who have a positive impact on a child and their family's well-being. The CCN has a varied role in cancer care, however, currently in the UK there is no framework specific to caring for a child at home with cancer. In response to the findings, one has been written to identify care needs and to emphasise service expectations. Conclusion: Specific training for caring for a child with cancer should be prioritised for all staff working within a CCN team and to ensure best practice, the framework should be implemented once reviewed and services re-evaluated.

Nasogastric tube feeding under restraint: practical guidance for children's nurses.

The number of children and young people admitted to children's wards with an eating disorder has increased significantly since the start of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In the most extreme cases, those with severe malnutrition may need to be fed via a nasogastric tube without their consent. Children's nurses working on hospital wards may therefore care for children and young people who need to receive nasogastric tube feeding under physical restraint. This article offers an overview of eating disorders and their detrimental effects as well as practical advice for children's nurses, supporting them to provide safe, compassionate and person-centred care to their patients.

Community children's nursing: developing a bespoke model of post-registration education.

Community children's nurses provide a vital service between the hospital and home environment, supporting children, young people and families with their health needs. In the UK, the number of educational pathways providing a specialist practitioner qualification in community children's nursing has declined significantly in recent years. This has left many community children's nursing services with little or no access to educational programmes, despite the rising demand. The four UK governments, together with regulatory bodies such as the Nursing and Midwifery Council, have embarked on ambitious transformation of post-registration career frameworks and standards, the long-term impact of which is uncertain. This article discusses an approach that one community children's nursing service in Scotland took to address these challenges by liaising with a local university and accessing a bespoke advanced practice programme.

Analysis of Application of Refined Nursing in Clinical Nursing of Children with Diarrhea

Analysis of Application of Refined Nursing in Clinical Nursing of Children with Diarrhea

Using mobile phones, WhatsApp and phone interviews to explore how children's hospice nurses manage long-term relationships with parents: a feasibility pilot.

Mobile phones are familiar to most nurses, but the applications available for voice recording and transfer of audio files in research may not be. To provide an overview of a pilot study which trialled the use of mobile phones, WhatsApp and phone interviews as a safe and reliable means of collecting data. A pilot study was designed to test the use of: mobile phones as a safe and reliable way to record audio diaries as research data; WhatsApp to transmit the audio files; and phone interviews to explore them. Undertaking the pilot demonstrated that the tools proposed for collecting data were useable and acceptable to the target population and that the researcher's guidance for doing so was satisfactory. New technologies enable innovation but trialling them for useability is important. Confidentiality and consent need to be carefully managed when using WhatsApp to ensure a study is compliant with data protection regulations. Collection of research data digitally and remotely has become increasingly mainstream and relied on during the COVID 19 pandemic. The methods discussed in this article provide solutions for timely data collection that are particularly useful when the researcher is geographically distant from participants. The 'in the moment' reflective nature of the audio diaries could also be applicable to non-research settings - for example, as a method of assisting ongoing professional development and/or collection of reflective accounts.

Preparing children's nurses for working with children and adolescents who self-harm: Evaluating the 'our care through our eyes' e-learning training package.

Rates of self-harm among children and adolescents have risen significantly over the past decade and clinical guidelines place children's nurses at the heart of their care. This article reports on the evaluation of 'Our Care Through Our Eyes', an online self-harm learning programme for children's nurses. A self-selected, convenience sample of registered children's nurses (n = 42) completed scales pre- and postlearning programme that captured their attitudes, beliefs, empathy, anxiety, and confidence. Mean change scores were assessed, and qualitative comments captured postintervention were thematically summarized. There were small improvements in participants' attitudes, empathy and confidence were reported. Anxiety scores increased in a small number of items. Qualitative comments confirmed the value of the online learning programme for improving children's nurses' knowledge and understanding of self-harm among CYP. Our findings demonstrate that children's nurses agree on the importance of mental health training in self harm, and this could be a catalyst for renewal of both pre- and postregistration education including support structures within the National Health Service. This study is the first to explore the feasibility of evaluating 'Our Care Through Our Eyes' delivered using e-leaning and could be used to inform further investigations.

Application Experience of Humanized Nursing Mode in Outpatient Nursing of Children in Dental and Endodontics Department

Application Experience of Humanized Nursing Mode in Outpatient Nursing of Children in Dental and Endodontics Department

Analysis on the Effect of Early Rehabilitation Nursing in the Nursing of Children with Severe Viral Encephalitis

Analysis on the Effect of Early Rehabilitation Nursing in the Nursing of Children with Severe Viral Encephalitis

Analysis of the Nursing Effect of Targeted Nursing in Children with Asthma and the Influence Value of Lung Function

Analysis of the Nursing Effect of Targeted Nursing in Children with Asthma and the Influence Value of Lung Function

Prize‐winning abstracts from BSACI/WAO 2022 meeting

Prize‐winning abstracts from <scp>BSACI</scp>/<scp>WAO</scp> 2022 meeting

Application Value of Rehabilitation Nursing Intervention in the Nursing of Children with Severe Viral Encephalitis

Application Value of Rehabilitation Nursing Intervention in the Nursing of Children with Severe Viral Encephalitis

Analysis of the Effect and Satisfaction Degree of Targeted Nursing in Children's Pneumonia Nursing

Analysis of the Effect and Satisfaction Degree of Targeted Nursing in Children's Pneumonia Nursing