ABSTRACT
Children’s and young people’s nurses are in a pivotal role within the care and day-to-day management of children, young people and their families through their healthcare journeys. There is a range of different inpatient journeys and the impact they have on each family will differ. Whatever the context or setting the children and young people’s nurse will always be required to follow the guiding political and professional principles, underpinning theories, assess, plan and implement care, to discern when care is not progressing appropriately and to build a therapeutic relationship with the child, young person, parents or carers and the interprofessional team. This requires effective leadership, management, communication, team work, appropriate decision making and trust (Bricher 1999). In order to understand why we do what we do in children’s and young people’s nursing, it is important to understand the interface between different disciplines. To that end, a working knowledge of the ethos of the organisation and other agencies in order to work collaboratively for seamless care between inpatient and community care is vital.
