Core Curriculum for the Nursing Care of Children and Their Families

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Summary: An Essential Guide to Nursing Practice with Children
Review: As pediatric nursing knowledge and competencies are becoming more critical to assure that we are providing quality care for children and their families, a book has emerged to become an essential tool in education and development in the special areas of nursing practice with children. The Core Curriculum for the Nursing Care of Children and Their Families is the product of multiple collaborations with experts in pediatric and child health nursing to establish a baseline of information that all nurses who are entrusted with the care of sick or injured children should have.

Inspired by documents to support the scope of practice and standards for pre-licensure and early professional education of pediatric nurses, endorsed and reviewed by leaders of the Society of Pediatric Nurses (SPN), and developed by a team of nationally recognized authorities in child health, the Core Curriculum synthesizes the essential concepts of care across developmental stages of childhood, phases of illness, and environments of care delivery. With its efficient outline and bullet-point style of text, it provides the reader, lecturer, preceptor, learner, or pediatric nurse who is studying for certification with a streamlined flow of information that gets at the "essentials" of content from classic pediatric textbooks. In addition, at the end of each chapter, readers will find an extensive bibliography and multiple choice study questions to test their understanding of the material.

The book is divided into three major sections: (1) child, family, and societal factors; (2) clinical problems or areas; and (3) care delivery. Each section is a compilation of chapters by clinicians with particular expertise integrated with useful figures, charts, and tables of comparison landmarks, guidelines, and reference points. The sections have been identified from the SPN documents to represent the wide range of knowledge that pediatric nurses need to know.

Section 1 provides an overview of the concepts of (a) anatomic structures, physiologic, psychological, and spiritual processes in neonates, infants, children and adolescents; (b) health; (c) separation, loss and bereavement; and (d) economic; social, and political influences. Section 2 covers the concepts of (a) safety and injury prevention; (b) children with acute illness or injuries and their families; and (c) children with a chronic condition, disability, or special health need and their families. Section 3 covers the important concepts of (a) family-centered care; (b) cultural competence; (c) communication; and (d) values and moral and ethical reasoning. It is clear that every practicing nurse who cares for a sick child should be grounded in these topics with an appreciation for the differences among children and a philosophy that families should be key to the health provider's care planning.

How useful is this beautifully bound book to the busy professional? Consider the following situations: Where would one find a collection of essential information specific to children and their families in an easy-to-read outline form if one were studying for certification in pediatric nursing, child health nursing, or preparing for licensure questions in pediatrics? Where would a pediatric nursing instructor look to develop instructional materials that are central to all content that pediatric nursing students should know? What resource could practicing nurses turn to in order to update their knowledge about pediatric nursing if children were going to be patients in their units? The Core Curriculum for Nursing Care of Children and Their Families is a comprehensive, sturdy, invaluable supplement to any hospital or clinic library shelf. In today's complex, busy hospital environments, nurses are all called upon to deliver nursing care to a variety of culturally diverse, clinically compromised patients. Sometimes, health environments obligate nurses with "general credentials" to serve special clientele because of special situations or circumstances. And in some cases, our general hospital units become empty beds for sick children to fill because of some disease or care-need situation. In these environments, it is even more necessary that nurses are prepared to deliver competent care even if their clients are not adults. We are all keenly aware that children with health problems are not medical-surgical patients who are young ' but rather, they are clients and families who trust that nurses know what to do in any situation. References such as the Core Curriculum for the Nursing Care of Children and Their Families should be the Bible of information for those special situations, and the mandatory baseline knowledge for all nurses who prepare to take care of children.