Alamy
Opinion
Disappearing act
A comprehensive review of community children’s nursing education is needed, argues Mark Whiting EARLIER THIS year the Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI) undertook a telephone survey of each of the UK universities holding Nursing and Midwifery Council approval to offer the district nursing (DN) specialist practitioner qualification (SPQ) (QNI 2013). The headline figures from the survey paint a sorry picture. Of the 33 English universities who were approved to run the DN course, 21 per cent did not in 2012/13. More than two thirds of the programmes that did run had a student cohort of ten or fewer, and 13 per cent had five students or fewer. The authors of the report also drew attention to data from the NHS Health and Social Care Information Centre annual workforce census that confirmed the number of whole time equivalent DNs in the NHS had declined by 40 per cent from 10,446 in 2002 to 6,381 in 2012. RCN general secretary Peter Carter described the situation as ‘a very worrying state of affairs’ (RCN 2013). The picture for community children’s nursing (CCNs) and CCN education is equally worrying. For the past academic year (2012/13), the council held approval for 12 UK universities to offer the CCN SPQ. Of the eight English universities, only five ran the programme in 2012/13, with a maximum seven students in
14 December 2013 | Volume 25 | Number 10
any one university completing the CCN SPQ. In 2013, 21 students completed programmes in England, seven students in Wales, four in Northern Ireland and four in Scotland who were offered a distance-learning programme from the University of South Wales. There is no UK-wide system for monitoring either the numbers of nurses who hold the SPQ or of the total workforce in community children’s nursing. In 2011, the Department of Health (DH) in England published a report in which it recognised the work of CCNs as being focused on children with:
■■ Acute and short-term conditions. ■■ Long-term conditions. ■■ Disabilities and complex conditions, including those requiring continuing care and neonates. ■■ Life-limiting and life-threatening illness, including those requiring palliative and end of life care. The Children and Young People’s Health Outcomes Forum report (DH 2012) recommended that ‘care for children with acute, complex or palliative care needs should be delivered as close to home as possible... this includes the need for 24-hour, seven days a week community children’s nursing teams’. However, it is imperative that a process to establish the necessary workforce data is put in place. The second priority relates to education. The absence of a strategic approach to the commissioning of CCN education is starkly illustrated by the low numbers of students undertaking the SPQ – a programme whose learning outcomes have not been revisited since 1994. The time is now right to undertake a root and branch review of CCN education and the health outcomes forum would seem to be in an ideal position to lead this work. Mark Whiting is WellChild professor of community children’s nursing, University of Hertfordshire and a member of Nursing Children and Young People’s editorial advisory board
References Department of Health (2011) NHS at Home: Community Children’s Nursing Service. DH, London. Department of Health (2012) Report of the Children and Young People’s Health Outcomes Forum. DH, London. Queen’s Nursing Institute (2013) Report on District Nurse Education in England, Wales and Northern Ireland 2012/13. QNI, London. Royal College of Nursing (2013) RCN: Need for District Nurses Greater than Ever. tiny.cc/saa65w (Last accessed: November 7 2013.)
Approvals for community children’s nursing specialist practitioner qualification programmes 2012/13 England Buckinghamshire New University Leeds Metropolitan University Manchester Metropolitan University Oxford Brookes University The University of Hull University of Central Lancashire University of Hertfordshire University of Surrey
Northern Ireland University of Ulster Scotland University of South Wales – provided through distance learning Wales Glyndŵr University Swansea University University of South Wales
(Nursing and Midwifery Council. www.nmc-uk.org/Approved-Programmes (Last accessed: August 1 2013.))
NURSING CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE Downloaded from RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Dec 09, 2015. For personal use only. No other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
Opinion
Disappearing act
A comprehensive review of community children’s nursing education is needed, argues Mark Whiting EARLIER THIS year the Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI) undertook a telephone survey of each of the UK universities holding Nursing and Midwifery Council approval to offer the district nursing (DN) specialist practitioner qualification (SPQ) (QNI 2013). The headline figures from the survey paint a sorry picture. Of the 33 English universities who were approved to run the DN course, 21 per cent did not in 2012/13. More than two thirds of the programmes that did run had a student cohort of ten or fewer, and 13 per cent had five students or fewer. The authors of the report also drew attention to data from the NHS Health and Social Care Information Centre annual workforce census that confirmed the number of whole time equivalent DNs in the NHS had declined by 40 per cent from 10,446 in 2002 to 6,381 in 2012. RCN general secretary Peter Carter described the situation as ‘a very worrying state of affairs’ (RCN 2013). The picture for community children’s nursing (CCNs) and CCN education is equally worrying. For the past academic year (2012/13), the council held approval for 12 UK universities to offer the CCN SPQ. Of the eight English universities, only five ran the programme in 2012/13, with a maximum seven students in
14 December 2013 | Volume 25 | Number 10
any one university completing the CCN SPQ. In 2013, 21 students completed programmes in England, seven students in Wales, four in Northern Ireland and four in Scotland who were offered a distance-learning programme from the University of South Wales. There is no UK-wide system for monitoring either the numbers of nurses who hold the SPQ or of the total workforce in community children’s nursing. In 2011, the Department of Health (DH) in England published a report in which it recognised the work of CCNs as being focused on children with:
■■ Acute and short-term conditions. ■■ Long-term conditions. ■■ Disabilities and complex conditions, including those requiring continuing care and neonates. ■■ Life-limiting and life-threatening illness, including those requiring palliative and end of life care. The Children and Young People’s Health Outcomes Forum report (DH 2012) recommended that ‘care for children with acute, complex or palliative care needs should be delivered as close to home as possible... this includes the need for 24-hour, seven days a week community children’s nursing teams’. However, it is imperative that a process to establish the necessary workforce data is put in place. The second priority relates to education. The absence of a strategic approach to the commissioning of CCN education is starkly illustrated by the low numbers of students undertaking the SPQ – a programme whose learning outcomes have not been revisited since 1994. The time is now right to undertake a root and branch review of CCN education and the health outcomes forum would seem to be in an ideal position to lead this work. Mark Whiting is WellChild professor of community children’s nursing, University of Hertfordshire and a member of Nursing Children and Young People’s editorial advisory board
References Department of Health (2011) NHS at Home: Community Children’s Nursing Service. DH, London. Department of Health (2012) Report of the Children and Young People’s Health Outcomes Forum. DH, London. Queen’s Nursing Institute (2013) Report on District Nurse Education in England, Wales and Northern Ireland 2012/13. QNI, London. Royal College of Nursing (2013) RCN: Need for District Nurses Greater than Ever. tiny.cc/saa65w (Last accessed: November 7 2013.)
Approvals for community children’s nursing specialist practitioner qualification programmes 2012/13 England Buckinghamshire New University Leeds Metropolitan University Manchester Metropolitan University Oxford Brookes University The University of Hull University of Central Lancashire University of Hertfordshire University of Surrey
Northern Ireland University of Ulster Scotland University of South Wales – provided through distance learning Wales Glyndŵr University Swansea University University of South Wales
(Nursing and Midwifery Council. www.nmc-uk.org/Approved-Programmes (Last accessed: August 1 2013.))
NURSING CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE Downloaded from RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Dec 09, 2015. For personal use only. No other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
