“Discuss the role and responsibilities of a Paediatric and a Child Health Nurse. What role do
these nurses play in keeping children safe?”
Role and Responsibilities of a Pediatric and a Child Health Nurse
Pediatric and child health nurses are typically registered nurses providing their services to
young people and children. The contribution of these nurses is tremendous in ensuring that
children receive quality healthcare but continue to be instrumental in enhancing quality
healthcare among children. The author delineates on the roles and responsibilities of pediatric
and child health nurse in keeping children safe among other issues concerning their services.
Roles of pediatric and child health nurse vary from institution to another, but
responsibilities remain similar. They are primary care givers as they provide preventive, curative,
promotive, and rehabilitative care in all the levels of healthcare services that pertains to children.
In health facilities, they provide care to sick children by comforting them, bathing, feeding, and
ensuring their safety (Conard & Pape, 2014). They ensure that children are well treated for any
ailments and provided with appropriate care. At the community level, the basic responsibilities
of these registered nurses include assessing the health of the children, immunizing them, and
ensuring that primary healthcare and referral services are provided.
Pediatrician nurses also play the roles of coordinators and collaborators. They must
maintain good interpersonal interactions with the family, child, and health team members.
ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF A PEDIATRIC AND CHILD NURSE 2
Communication is very critical for nurses as it allows them to share with the parties concerned
and in the process, improving the quality of services that they render. They also coordinate
nursing care with other services to meet the needs of the children (Conard & Pape, 2014). For
example, they coordinate with other parties in the sector such as social workers, physicians,
dieticians, and physiotherapists to ensure that they render superb services to the children.
These nurses also play a role of an advocate. They advocate for the rights of the children
and come up with strategies to render best care from the healthcare team (Conard & Pape, 2014).
Another role of the pediatric and child health nurse is that of health educator. They have the
responsibilities to teach the parents about the best strategies to prevent sickness, promote, and
maintain health of their children. Information is a very critical aspect in ensuring improved
services.
Nurses act as consultants in guiding parents on how to maintain and promote health of
their children. For instance, they guide parents about the best-feed practices, best facilities to
visit, and accident prevention among many others. They also counsel parents on health hazards
and ensure that they can make appropriate decisions in different situations that they encounter
(Gregorowski et al., 2013). They as well act as care managers whereby they monitor, organize,
and evaluate patients’ treatment to ensure that the outcome is positive. They also participate in
social services as they can refer children and families to other child welfare agencies to ensure
that they get necessary support.
Another role of these nurses is carrying out research, which is a very important and
integral part of the nursing profession. Research provides the basis for changes in the nursing
practices; it improves the child health care, as well as improving the evaluation of such practice.
Depending on the level of experience, these nurses may also play other roles and responsibilities
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such as carrying out physical examinations, immunization of children, screening of disease,
diagnosing of sicknesses, and prescribing medication for the children (Gregorowski et al., 2013).
Nurses employ development strategies and frameworks to minimize or prevent future
health issues. The most used framework many nurse embrace is of health promotion, quality,
safety, and risk management. Health promotion encompasses three levels including primary,
secondary, and tertiary level. These nurses aim to promote healthy maturation, intellectual,
physical, and emotional bonding of children in the context of the family and community
(Gregorowski et al., 2013). They as well provide care to those children in need and deal with
disabilities. In primary level, they achieve this through education of children and parents and by
providing basic needs and immunization to the children. At secondary levels, the role of these
nurses is to provide care such as treatment to sick children. They, therefore, achieve this by
assessing their needs, planning for the best care, implementing the plan, evaluating the condition
of the child, and teaching the child and parent about healthcare. At the tertiary level, these nurses
endeavor to ensure that children regain their normal health. They must as well ensure quality by
adhering to the ethics when providing care such as prescribing the right medication and provide
right immunizations to the children (Prospects, 2014). According to Nursing and Midwifery
Board of Australia (NMBA) (2008), nurses ned to practice ina safe and competent manner,
adhre to standards of professional and broader helath system and ensure conidential of any
personal informtaion among others.
Safety is a very important role of the pediatric nurses. The safety of children in the health
facility is a responsibility of the parent as well as of a pediatric nurse (Egerton, 2012). Risk
management has become a very important factor and nurses need to know how to manage risks
they are exposed to ensure that they do not compromise on their services.
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Even as these nurses play their roles and responsibilities, they must consider cultural
needs, rights, and expectation of the children, infants, young people, and families they come
across within an ethical and legal framework. Cultures of parents do vary, and taking an
initiative to understand their beliefs and values is important as it allows the nurse to align the
services to suit the such needs (Egerton, 2012). The rights and expectations of the child or family
members must as well be respected when rendering services. Law must also be adhered
accordingly. The right to informed consent and end to life protocols must be respected when
providing healthcare to the children. Ethics plays a key role in the nursing profession. Pediatric
and child health nurses must respect and follow the codes of ethics in their service delivery. They
must be honest, have integrity, be respectful, and endeavor to render services with diligence.
In conclusion, pediatric and child health nurses have a wide array of responsibilities and
roles. I addition to promoting health among children, they also collaborate with parents and
families to ensure that quality healthcare is rendered. It is therefore, prudent for the nurses to
appreciate that situations keep on changing in their practice in terms of technological
advancement, and they must always be on the look out to keep abreast with such changes.