The Royal College of Nursing (2003, p.3)defines nursing as“the use of clinical judgment in the provision of care to enable people to improve, maintain, or recover health”. Nursing is a profession which is quite rewarding as it includes providing a range of care to patients and their families. There are four different pre-registration branches of nursing which allows them to work in different areaswith many different people.
In this essay, it will primarily focus on child nursing and their role. Firstly, it will explore the role of children’s nurse and the types of places they work in andfinally, it willexplain the typical work activities undertaken by children’s nurses and also the views of children on how the children’s nurses could be made better.
Children’s nurses are also known as paediatric nurses,they provide care for children from 0 to 18 years of age with different conditions which can be short or long-termhealth problems (UNISON, 2006).The role of a children’s nurse include working with the families in order to meet the needs of the sick children. They work in partnership with multi-disciplinary team such as doctors, play specialists, social workers, and many more.
Children’s nurse can work in a variety of healthcare and community settings i.e.hospital, hospice, day care centre, child health clinic and child’s own home.It does not matter where they practice because their main focus and concern is the welfare of children and their families. They provide family-centred care by supporting, encouraging and enhancing the strength and competence of the family. The roles of children’s nurses includemaintaining a therapeutic relationshipwith the family and the children in order to remain professional (Hockenberry and Wilson, 2007).They play an important part in taking into account their medical, cultural and family circumstances (Waddell, 2010).
Children’s nurses undertake a range of typical work activities that vary according