ABPN Newsletter August 2024

New membership platform

On 1st August 2024, we announced the launch of our new membership platform. Current membership details have now been transferred over to the new membership platform. We will be providing regular updates as we transition over to the new platform and pick up any issues or problems which may arise. In the meantime you might find the following information helpful.

Existing members

Members who have provided email addresses as part of their contact information will have received an email from the platform with their unique code to log in and update their membership portfolio. If you haven’t received an email, check your junk folder as it might have popped into that folder by mistake. Look out for an email from Members ABPN<members@abpn-uk.co.uk>

Members who have not provided a current email address will have received a letter in the post and a return reply slip to provide their email address.

For those members who currently don’t have access to the internet or online facilities, the ABPN membership officer will continue to manage their membership through the new platform.

Subscriptions and direct debits

As part of the new membership platform, members will need to renew their annual membership and pay their subscriptions via the membership platform.

All current direct debit instructions from the 1st August 2024 will be cancelled. Members who have paid their direct debits over the last year up to the 1st August 2024 have had their membership expiry dates updated on the platform. Reminder emails will be received from the platform explaining that your current membership is due to expire and provide a link to update and re-subscribe for the following year.

New Members

From 1st August 2024 anyone wishing to join the ABPN will be directed to complete an online application form through the ABPN website. The membership officer and or admin person for the platform will then authorise the membership which will then enable you to continue with the process, and let you forward onto the payment section of the platform.

Links to websites and useful addresses

• Jim Robinson, Membership Officer membersabpn@yahoo.co.uk
• Simon Hardcastle-Waugh, Finance Officer simon.hardcastle@nhs.net

Increasing our visibility

The Governance and Development Group has been busy over the past few months with activities and with new Working Groups aiming to increase our visibility and our reach (see more about these later in the Newsletter).

On behalf of the Association, the President sent welcome letters to the Secretaries of State and key Ministers in the Department for the Home Office, Department of Education, and the Department of Work and Pensions of the new Government.

We also welcomed Duncan Burton, Chief Nursing Officer for England who took up post in July. Duncan's previous post was Deputy Chief Nursing Officer where he led national work on the maternity and neonatal programme, workforce policies and the children and young people’s transformation programme.

These letters of welcome included the aim of the Association, and offered the Association’s advice and support to the development of policies and guidance that aim to improve the health and lives of children, young people and their families.

We have been more active in sending out press releases in recent months and are developing a strategy for future press releases.

News about policies and working groups

We continue to work on ensuring our policies are up to date to guide our working practices. This is best practice and also required by the Charity Commission. We are currently working on our decision-making policy and a policy about approvals of press releases and position statements. We update our existing policies regularly and these are available on our website.

We currently have three Working Groups:

• Enhancing membership: This group is chaired by Michael Tatterton and has been focusing on student recruitment with the intention to have a campaign targeting qualified children’s nurses in 2025.
• Policy development: This group is chaired by Katrina McNamara and has been focusing on creating ABPN policy position statements.
• Communications and Raising our Profile: This group is chaired by Fiona Smith and has been focusing on press releases, webinars, templates for press releases and policy position statements, glossary of terms and marketing materials.

Position Statement on the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults Bill

You may wonder why we have developed a position statement on the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults Bill that is currently being introduced to the House of Lords by Lord Falconer.

We recognise that this Bill relates to people over the age of 18 years, but equally recognise that some young people’s services provide services beyond the age of 18, also some young people start to consider options for their future care as they approach adulthood, which could include discussions about Assisted Dying. Nurses are trusted professionals and may find themselves involved in these early discussions, or simply be asked what the Bill is about. We therefore believe that it is appropriate to set out our position statement now. At the same time children and young people do not have access to palliative care services, so call upon the government to ensure this provision. To read more go to our website

https://www.abpn-uk.com/press-releases-and-position-statements.html

Update on our social media drive

Thanks to Georgina who has been driving our social media presence forward, we are happy to share that our presence is increasing.

We started our TikTok account (@ABPN_ChildNurse) on 11th October 2023. We currently have 21 videos + 6 infographics, 19,542 views, 830 likes and 1977 followers.

We started our YouTube account (@ABPN_ChildNurse) on 3rd October 2023. We currently have 11 videos, 1200 views, 63 likes and 17 subscribers.

We started our X page (@ABPN_ChildNurse) in mid-June 2023, our follower count has grown to 1,429 followers.

We started our Facebook page (Association of British Paediatric Nurses) in mid-June 2023, we now have 346 members.

If you’d like to get involved with our social media, if there’s something you’d like to share or if you would be interested in doing a video for our TikTok please email georgina.fg@sky.com

Social media infographics

And as part of our social media presence, we publish infographics about key topics such as the one about Play published in August 2024.

The Blue Book

Our Blue Book contains key moments from the history of the Association reaching back to its first meeting in 1938.

As always, we are interested in any new content for the Blue Book, especially material that will help us fill in details from our early history. We now maintain the Blue Book as a live document and update it regularly. You can find a copy of the Blue Book on our website http://www.abpn-uk.com/key-documents-policies-and-resources.html

If you have any information you think we should add, then please do let us know. If you can contribute, please contact either

• Robin robin.hyde@northumbria.ac.uk or
• Bernie bernie.carter@edgehill.ac.uk

Newsletter

If you have any ideas for content or have any feedback on our newsletter, please do contact

• Bernie bernie.carter@edgehill.ac.uk

ABPN Webinar Series

The ABPN is delighted to announce a programme of webinars commencing in September 2024.

Information about further webinars will be found on the ABPN website once the topics and presenters have been confirmed. Our aim is to hold a range of webinars of interest to children’s nurses in clinical practice, education, leadership and research.

Global, regional and local issues: opportunities for children's nurses

Date and time: 18th September 2024, 16.00-17.00

Presenter: Fiona Smith, RNC, RNA, Dip in Nursing Studies, BA Health Studies, Masters in Business Admin (Health)

Summary of webinar presentation: Fiona will be talking about some of the global, European and UK perspectives of the issues facing children and young people today. She will address some of the opportunities that children’s nurses, either individually or collectively can take to tackle and influence services and outcomes for children, young people and their families.

Do we really need Community Children’s Nurses?

Date and time: 14th November 2024, 16.00-17.00

Presenter: Mark Whiting, PhD, MSc. BNursing, PGDip(ED), RGN, RSCN, DN, HV

Summary of webinar presentation: Mark Whiting will lead a webinar reflecting on the history of the development of Community Children’s Nursing in the UK. Mark will commence by exploring how and why during the late 19th Century, the introduction of dedicated community nursing provision for children followed close-on-the-heels of the establishment of the first children’s hospitals in the UK. This will be followed with a review of the disjointed development of CCN provision during the early years of the NHS and a celebration of the ‘golden years’ of CCN service expansion between 1985 and 2000. Mark will then offer some personal reflections on “Where we are now” and invite attendees to offer their own perspectives on the question “Do we really need Community Children’s Nurses?”

Journal of Child Health Care Resources

Apart from great editorials and high quality peer reviewed papers, the Journal of Child Health Care produces great JCHC podcasts, hosted by Associate Editor, Liz King. These podcasts focus on authors talking about their research and the papers published in the journal.

The latest podcast is by Stephen McKeever, Liz King and Jim Reeder and is called ‘Are we at risk of commodifying lived experience in childhood disability research’?

Other podcasts in the series can be found on the journal's website.

Newcastle Clinical Skills Academy - One day Paediatric ECG and Arrhythmia Course

This one day scenario based course takes delegates through the practical aspects of paediatric ECG interpretation whilst providing strategies for management and treatment options. This interactive course is aimed at both qualified and trainee staff. Advanced nurse practitioners and allied health professionals welcome.

Date: Wednesday 18 September 2024 9:00am to 4:00pm

For enquiries, email nuth.ncsa@nhs.net

RCPCH: Child health inequalities driven by child poverty in the UK - position statement

The RCPCH published an updated position statement on 8th August that focuses on poverty as a driver of health inequalities

It acknowledged that health inequalities are the “avoidable, unfair and systematic differences in health outcomes between different groups of babies, children and young people”. This updated position statement outlines “the state of child poverty in the UK today, the impacts on children’s health, and the actions each of the devolved administrations and Westminster Government should take to address it, which include:

• Appointing a Cabinet-level Minister for Children and Young People to ensure a 'child health in all policies' approach to policy development, as well as developing a cross-departmental strategy to improve children’s health and wellbeing.
• To follow Scotland’s lead in introducing a Young Patients Family Fund, and for this to be expanded across the UK to cover in and outpatients to help a greater number of families meet the costs of attending hospital.
• Ending the two-child limit to benefit payments to provide further financial support to children and their families.
• Expand the free school meals scheme to all children in primary schools so they can all be provided with a nutritious meal.”

Towards an effective and financially sustainable approach to SEND in England.

An independent report by ISOS Partnership commissioned by the County Councils Network and Local Government Association comes to the conclusion that the “SEND system is broken” and it notes that “the growing reality is that a combination of unexpected need and unintended perverse incentives in the system exacerbated by this demand – alongside a general squeeze on public resources – have left parents, schools, health and councils all increasingly dissatisfied and often frustrated, as well as resulting in poorer outcomes for children”. The report notes four key facts:

• Key fact 1: More children and young people than ever before are being identified as having SEND.
• Key fact 2: There are more children and young people than ever before whose needs are not being met in mainstream education, and thus require specialist provision.
• Key fact 3: More money than ever before is being invested in SEND, but it is significantly less than what is actually being spent on SEND by LAs, health services and education settings.
• Key fact 4: Despite rapidly rising expenditure, outcomes of children and young people with SEND and families’ day-to-day experiences of the system have not improved.

The report proposes eight recommendations that form “an overall vision for reform” and the recommendations fall into three broad blocks: setting the national ambition; putting principles into practice; and underpinning conditions.

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ce55a5ad4c5c500016855ee/t/669fcedacd1a1f608546f52b/1721749338168/SEND+report.pdf

The Relationship between Urban Environment and Childhood Asthma: A Systematic Literature Review

This systematic review examined the relationship between urban environment and childhood asthma with the outdoor air quality as the intervening variable.

Fifty-one articles were eligible for inclusion; of these a large number of studies focused on the relationship between traffic-related air pollution and childhood asthma.

The findings reveal that “particular environments have detrimental effects on outdoor air quality, which in turn have a negative impact on childhood asthma”. The authors note that “past research has tended to investigate the role of a single variable or just a few variables in causing or exacerbating childhood asthma” rather than taking into account the “complex interaction of environmental factors”.

The authors also note that “there is a need for more research in developing countries, as the prevalence of childhood asthma may vary from one context to another because of the social and physical environmental disparities across the globe”.

Association between age of respiratory syncytial virus infection hospitalization and childhood asthma: a systematic review

This systematic review aimed to comprehensively summarize studies of the association between age of RSV infection and childhood asthma risk.

From 149 studies screened, five studies (two prospective cohort studies and three retrospective cohort studies) (n= 47,603 participants) were included in the systematic review.

The included studies only assessed age of severe RSV infection and asthma risk. The heterogeneous epidemiological designs of the included studies did not allow a meta-analysis to be performed for the weighted averages of the effect estimates to be calculated.

The authors conclude that their review highlights “a major gap in our knowledge about the relationship between age of RSV infection and asthma risk”.

Interventions to promote the health and well-being of children under 5s experiencing homelessness in high-income countries: a scoping review

This scoping review’s primary objective was to map the content and delivery methods of culturally sensitive interventions for children under 5 experiencing homelessness in high income countries (HICs).

After screening, 13 articles met the inclusion criteria.

The results show “two predominant categories of intervention delivery methods were identified in this research: group-based interventions (educational sessions) and individual-based interventions (home visits)”.

The authors conclude that there are “effective interventions for promoting the health and well-being of children under 5 experiencing homelessness, including educational sessions and home visits” and that home visiting can be “instrumental in breaking down language, cultural and health literacy barriers”.

A meta-synthesis of the experience of paediatric nurses in communication with children

This study aimed to conduct a meta-synthesis to explore the experiences of paediatric nurses in communication with children.

After screening, 14 relevant studies were included in the review and data were synthesized using the qualitative thematic analysis.

Data analysis yielded three main themes: swinging between triadic and dyadic communication; applying a hybrid of communication methods; and influential factor in communication.

The authors conclusions note the “significance of establishing a balanced approach between dyadic communication (nurse and child) and triadic communication (nurse–parent–child) in paediatric care” and the importance of “simultaneous use of verbal and non-verbal methods to enhance effective communication”. Identifying the influential factors in communication can aid in developing and improving nurses' competency in communication skills within paediatric department

“My child is my job now” – Care, work and careers of mothers with disabled children in the Norwegian welfare state

This qualitative multiple case study of 11 mothers with disabled children aimed to investigate how mothers of disabled children in Norway experience the work–family conflict and its impact on their careers, highlighting the role of provision of health and welfare services.

The findings show that “mothers of disabled children experience considerable work–family conflict, creating ill-health and income-related struggles. This conflict is heavily influenced by inadequate support from health and welfare services”. The authors also note that “some of the mothers highlighted how caring for their disabled children led to growth and new career paths, using their care experiences to craft new careers”.

The authors draw on the concept of the “care crunch and a relational perspective on disability to demonstrate how the social organisation of care for disabled children undervalues the care work mothers do and puts disabled children at risk of receiving insufficient and unequal services”.

Change in child mental health during the Ukraine war: evidence from a large sample of parents

This study aimed to provide a preliminary estimate of the degree of change in the mental health problems of Ukrainian children following Russia’s invasion in February 2022, and to identify the sociodemographic and war-related risk factors associated with these changes.

The study used a nationwide, opportunistic sample of 1238 parents who reported on a single randomly chosen child within their household as part of The Mental Health of Parents and Children in Ukraine Study. The modified version of the Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC-17) was adapted to capture change in the frequency of symptoms since the beginning of the war.

Parents reported “increases across all 17 indicators of internalizing, externalizing, and attention problems of the PSC-17. Increased problems were most pronounced within the internalizing domain, with 35% of parents reporting that their child worried more since the beginning of the war”. Results show that “exposure to war trauma, pre-existing mental health problems, and child age were among the strongest predictors of change”.

The authors conclude there is “preliminary evidence that the Russian war on Ukraine has led to an increase in common mental health problems among children in the general population”.

Child development education in the Neonatal Unit: Understanding parent developmental literacy needs, priorities and preferences

This study aimed to describe child development knowledge needs, priorities, and preferences for education to enhance developmental literacy among parents with children admitted to the neonatal unit (NNU).

Parents of infants who were inpatients (n=209) or who had graduated from NNUs (n=316) took part in a survey.

The results show that “parents considered it extremely important to understand child development. Almost half (42%) of graduate parents described the child development education provided by neonatal staff as poor or inadequate”. Parents wanted “education to commence during NNU and continue post discharge” with “individualised education by a Neonatal Nurse/Midwife” being the most preferred option.

The authors conclude that “improved early developmental literacy education for parents with children admitted to the neonatal unit” is important.

Creative Arts Therapy among Children with Cancer: Symptom Assessment Reveals Reduced Anxiety

This study used a secondary analysis of prospective data to examine Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) symptom subscales in relation to creative arts therapy (CAT) over time in 83 children (aged 3-17yrs) during the first year of cancer treatment.

Findings showed a reduced child report of procedural anxiety was significantly related to receiving CAT with a medium magnitude of association.

The authors conclude that “creative arts interventions were associated with a longitudinal improvement in anxiety in children with cancer” and that paediatric oncology nurses “can advocate for CAT as an effective intervention to ameliorate the burdensome procedural anxiety experienced by patients”.

Advising parents when their child has a fever: a phenomenographic analysis of nurses’ perceptions when working at a telephone helpline, at primary care or at a paediatric emergency department in Sweden

This qualitative, phenomenographic study aimed to describe nurses’ perceptions of advising parents when their child has a fever.

Twenty-four nurses based in southern Sweden with experience advising parents of febrile children between birth and 5 years of age were interviewed online.

The nurses described four different kinds of balancing acts: “balancing between the parents’ story and objective assessment, balancing between listening and teaching, balancing between self-confidence and trust in the expert, and balancing between independence and having someone by one’s side”.

The authors conclude that “giving advice to parents when their child has a fever is a process where the nurse needs to listen, assess and give advice based on the situation” and “what dominates are the nurses’ perceptions of the inner qualities required to achieve a balance in the process”.