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Children and Young People’s Nursing at a Glance

Edited by

Alan Glasper

Professor of Children’s and Young People’s Nursing
Faculty of Health Sciences
University of Southampton
Southampton, UK

Jane Coad

Professor in Children and Family Nursing
Faculty of Health and Life Sciences
Coventry University
Coventry, UK

Jim Richardson

Senior Lecturer at the School of Nursing
Faculty of Health, Social Care and Education
Kingston University London and St George’s
University of London
London, UK

Series Editor: Ian Peate

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Preface

The education of children’s and young people’s nurses remains a foremost challenge for those wishing to ensure the accuracy and safety of the evidence base for practice. As long ago as 1952, Twistington-Higgins in his book written to commemorate the first 100 years of The Hospital For Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, London, UK, reiterates one of the original aims of the hospital dated 1852, which was: ‘To disseminate among all classes of the community but chiefly among the poor a better acquaintance with the management of infants and children during illness by employing it [The Hospital] as a school for the education of women in the special duties of children’s nursing’.

That initial aim of one of the early children’s hospitals resonates with contemporary children’s and young people’s nursing and Catherine Jane Wood, one of the early matrons of The Great Ormond Street children’s hospital left a tangible legacy of the importance of educating children’s and young people’s nurses in stating that ‘Sick children require special nursing and sick children’s nurses require special training’ (Wood 1888). In recognition of that laudable aim this new and exciting at a Glance book has been written by experienced practitioners and educators in a common quest to capture the complexities delivering nursing practice based on best evidence.

All children’s and young people’s nurses share a single espirt de corps which unites them with their colleagues worldwide and although this book is primarily reflective of children’s and young people’s nursing in the United Kingdom, others will find it an invaluable guide to the delivery of evidence-based nursing care.

Although the prime focus of the book is to illuminate best clinical practice, my fellow editors and I hope that the format of the at a Glance series will provide quick and easy access to important care delivery information packaged in an engaging and informative style. This book will be of interest to undergraduate student nurses and existing registrants wishing to remind themselves of the complexities of children’s and young people’s nursing which encompasses care delivery across the lifespan of the child from birth through to the emergence of the young person and future adult. In the pages of this book you will find concise information to help you deliver that care to this wide and disparate client group that makes up the landscape of contemporary childhood.

For those students wishing to test their knowledge and understanding of the content there is a comprehensive bank of multiple choice questions on the companion website.

This book could not have been completed without the organizational expertise and help of Brenda Nash. My fellow editors and I are in her debt.

Alan Glasper

References

Twistington-Higgins T. (1952) Great Ormond Street 1852–1952. Watford: Odhams Press Ltd.

Wood CJ. (1888) The training of nurses for sick children. Nursing Record December 6, 507–510.