EDUCATING THE NEW COMMUNITY CHILDRENS NURSES - CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

This paper aims to stimulate debate around the issue of educating nurs es within the new Specialist Practitioner courses in areas where no Co mmunity Children's Nursing services currently exist. The United Kingdo m Central Council (UKCC) (1994) have provided the impetus and the educ ational structure for the development of community services for childr en through the publication of learning outcomes for the new, long awai ted, Community Children's Nursing qualification, In outlining learning outcomes for this and the other Specialist Community Nursing Practice courses, the UKCC is clearly communicating that the care of sick chil dren in the community should be the province of Community Children's N urses and not held to be within the remit of other community nurses. C onsequently, areas which do not currently offer a Community Children's Nursing service to these children and their families are presented wi th several challenges: educating nurses for these new roles; developin g a new service; and redefining the roles of practitioners currently c aring for these children in the community. This paper addresses the fi rst of these challenges and identifies three factors influencing the e ducation of these new practitioners: funding, supervision and placemen ts, A strategic model for the support of these new students in areas w ith no existing service is proposed.