ABSTRACT
This chapter explores why nurses need to facilitate children living a childhood. Once a childhood focus has been discussed, we move on to consider an educational or growth model of Pragmatic Children's Nursing. We might consider the model to consist of an environmental pre-stage where nurses attend to the internal and external environments which allow, or facilitate, children's access to a childhood. Childhood is important to children in forming their anatomy and physiology, in shaping their behaviour, in providing them with social contacts and in providing them with opportunities to learn. Malfunctions in human anatomy and physiology tend to present themselves as challenges to our abilities to interact and to function. A large part of many children's childhoods are spent in schools. Children's nursing requires two prerequisites: the restoration and stabilising of the internal environment or health status; the arrangement of the environment to enhance health status and allow access to childhood environments.
