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Mark Whiting and colleagues report on the final part of a Delphi survey that ranked priority concerns about proposals to change pre-registratiion nursing education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mark Whiting and colleagues reflect on the historical development of pre-registration education for children's nurses and present the outcomes of a conference convened to consider the issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In light of the House of Lords proposed amendment to the Children Bill, the 'smacking debate' has reached a crescendo. The Whiting family give four very different views on the issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses the 17th congress that she have attended representing the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) children and young people (CYP) forums. She cites various topics discussed in the CYP forums including restricting the sale of fireworks, respite care and perinatal mental illness. At the congress dinner, she offered an account of the time when former British Health Minister Brian Mawhinney addressed the RCN congress and commended their Directory of Pediatric Community Nursing.

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic resulted in significant changes to education delivery. For many university programmes this has included a move from face-to-face to virtual and online learning and teaching., Aim: To gain insight into the experiences of students undertaking the community children's nursing specialist practitioner programme during the academic year 2020-21, when most learning and teaching was delivered using virtual and online methods as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic., Method: A survey questionnaire containing qualitative and quantitative questions was distributed to 28 students by programme leaders at three universities in England. Seven questionnaires were returned, yielding a 25% response rate., Findings: Respondents' experience of online and virtual learning was generally positive, with benefits for work-life balance and the opportunity to revisit recorded lectures being particularly well regarded. Loss of opportunity for face-to-face engagement with fellow students and the teaching team were identified as disadvantages., Conclusion: There was strong student support for the provision of more flexible approaches to learning and teaching. Universities should recognise that failure to offer such flexibility could potentially affect recruitment and the viability of courses in the future., Competing Interests: None declared, (© 2023 RCN Publishing Company Ltd. All rights reserved. Not to be copied, transmitted or recorded in any way, in whole or part, without prior permission of the publishers.)

Aim: To assess the preparation required to ensure a workforce of nurses who can provide high quality out-of-hospital services for children and young people., Methods: Using mixed methods, questionnaires were sent to young people and community children's nursing teams, interviews were conducted with academic staff and clinical nurses, and focus groups were undertaken with pre-registration children's nursing students., Findings: Nurses' communication skills and clinical abilities were most important to young people. There is a range of opinions about optimum out-of-hospital clinical experience. Pre- and post-qualification education and recruitment in this area, therefore, need attention., Conclusion: Out-of-hospital care presents problems, but is developing rapidly. Adequate, updated training, supervision and resources are needed.

Aim: To explore how parents of children with disabilities and complex health needs make sense of the circumstances in which they find themselves., Method: A series of in-depth semi-structured interviews were undertaken with the parents of 34 children (from 33 families) with a disability or a complex health need. The families were nominated by health professionals to one of three study subgroups: children with a disability, children with a life-limiting or life-threatening illness, or children with technology dependence. Interviews were recorded and transcribed., Findings: Analysis of parents' responses related to sense-making revealed two main categories: 'diagnosis' and 'personal, cultural and personality factors'. These two categories alongside the two other main study themes, 'impact' and 'need for help and support' reported in the previous two articles in this series - linked into a final study theme: 'battleground'., Conclusion: For the parents of children with complex health needs and disabilities, the sense that they make of their situation plays a pivotal role in determining how parents experience the impact of disability and the need for help and support.

Aim: To investigate the experiences of parents of children with complex health needs in relation to the help and support they receive when caring for their child., Method: A series of in-depth semi-structured interviews undertaken with the parents of 34 children (33 families) with a disability or a complex health need. Families were categorised into one of three subgroups: children with a disability, children with a life-limiting or life-threatening illness, or children with technology dependence., Findings: In relation to parental experience of the need for help and support, two major categories were identified, namely 'people', and 'processes and resources', as well as a series of subcategories. Respite care was identified as the greatest unmet need., Conclusion: Parents identified a range of helping behaviours among key professional staff involved in support provision. The greatest area of unmet needs is for respite care.

Aim: To identify consistency and differences in parental perceptions of impact, need for support and 'sense making' in children with a disability, children with a life-threatening or life-limiting illness and children who are technology dependent., Method: A series of in-depth semi-structured interviews were undertaken with parents from 33 families that included one or more child with disabilities. The data arising from these interviews were subjected to a systematic comparative analysis based on three discrete subgroups of children: those with a disability, those with a life-limiting or life-threatening illness, and those with a technology dependence., Findings: There were major areas of consistency in parental experience of impact as related in three categories that emerged from the data: time, multiple roles and the disabled family., Conclusion: There are many effects of childhood disability on the family. In large part, the effects cannot simply be defined or described in the context of a particular 'medical' diagnosis or prognosis. Many elements of impact do not appear to be related to whether or not a child has a life-threatening or life-limiting illness or by whether or not a child is dependent on specific medical devices or ongoing nursing care.

During the past 50 years the care of children and young people who are unwell in the UK has shifted out of the hospital environment and into the community and has become more complex, requiring the development among families and care staff of corresponding clinical skills. The ongoing initiative Training High aims to meet this need by offering appropriate training programmes to families and professional carers so they can safely undertake certain procedures. This article describes the success of one training project in England.

Aim: To present the use of mind maps as a way of seeking participant verification of an emerging theoretical framework., Data Sources: Exploratory interviews, based on three pre-identified study themes--impact, need for help and support, and meaning and/or sense-making--were carried out with the parents of three sub-groups of children with disabilities or complex health needs. These were: children with disabilities, children with life-limiting or life-threatening illnesses, and children dependent on technology. A random sample of participants was subsequently presented with a series of mind maps that represented the themes, categories and sub-categories (and the relationships between them) contained within a rich and complex dataset. Participants were invited to confirm or challenge elements of the mind maps to verify the researcher's interpretation of their experiences when caring for their children., Discussion: Major areas of consistency were identified in the experience of parents of children across the three study sub-groups., Conclusion: Mind-maps are already well established as a tool for analysing complex data sets. This study offers a novel approach to the use of mind maps as a means of seeking participant verification of an emerging theoretical framework., Implications for Research/practice: The use of mind maps when seeking participant verification of qualitative data will require further testing.

This paper considers nurses' responsibilities on giving advice about the purchasing of health care. By outlining the steps in the purchasing cycle, a coherent framework is presented for identifying the specific issues associated with the purchasing of health services by district health authorities (DHAs), and family health service authorities (FHSAs) in England and Wales, and health boards (HBs) in Scotland. Purchasing health is every nurse's business. All registered nurses in the UK have a contribution that they can and should make to ensure that their DHA, HB or FHSA makes the best possible provision for their resident population.