Skills or skilled? Children's nursing in the context of the current debate around nursing skills

Kenny, Gerard

Abstract

This article seeks to demonstrate how the current debate around nursing skills is derived from an economic model of care and competency that has been based on the needs of the adult population. The professional perspective of children's nursing has been unheard in policy and decisionmaking circles concerning the skills agenda debate within educational and clinical practice. As a consequence, the need of children's nurses has been assumed to be the same as those of general/adult nursing. This article argues that children's nursing has followed a different historical and professional pathway on its progression to maturity. These differences call for alternative educational and clinical solutions for children's nurses in the issue of skills acquisition. In the children's nursing context, this is the difference between having a skill and being skilled. Recognition of this could ensure that children's nursing has a valuable contribution to make to the debate from its unique perspective. © 2003 SAGE Publications.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Dec 1, 2003
• Journal: Journal of Child Health Care
• Print ISSN: 1367-4935
• Electronic ISSN: 1741-2889
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 7
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 113-122
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1367493503007002005
• Keywords: skills, children's nursing, nursing skills
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/1069724
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1367493503007002005