All change in children’s and young people’s nurse education: the views of senior practitioners

The field of children and young people’s nursing practice has only existed for 18 years in its current configuration. Despite this the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) as part of their mandate to consider a recommendation of the outgoing UKCC post-commission development group to consider its recommendations for the future of the pre-registration fields of practice was launched in November 2007. This consultation with the profession as a whole asks registrants to consider the UKCC post-commission group (2001) legacy of six potential changes to the way in which nurses are educated for the profession. This paper reports on a focus group activity conducted with Members of the Association of Chief Children’s Nurses (ACCN) at their autumn 2007 meeting on the Island of jersey designed to fully consider the six options from a children’s nursing perspective. As part of the consultation exercise the current NMC also consider no change to the existing register format as a discrete option in its review. (ACCN, 2007). Data in the format of a SWOT analysis was elicited from 18 members of the ACCN. An analysis of the data demonstrates that senior children’s nurses firmly believe in retaining discrete children’s and young people’s nursing field of practice at the pre-registration level