Children’s regard for nurses and nursing: A mosaic of children’s views on community nursing

In the past decade there has been both an increase in the number of children who receive nursing care in their communities rather than in hospitals, and an increasing willingness to listen to children. This qualitative study used Clark’s Mosaic approach to elicit children’s views of community children’s nursing. Twenty-one children took part in total, with seven children making up a core group who participated in a number of activities for over a year. A non-core group of 14 children were observed receiving care from six community children’s nurses. The children had diverse medical conditions, were aged from 11 months to 17 years old and came from diverse social, ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Some children expressed a positive regard for nurses and nursing. Some children a negative regard, others were ambiguous. From these data it is proposed that there is a continuum of regard for nurses. How children regarded nurses did not seem to be related to the nurse’s actions, but to the child’s understanding of their illness and their involvement in care. Further study is required to clarify the concept and should focus on what effect children’s regard for nurses and nursing has on health outcomes.