Roles and Responsibilities of Paediatrics and Child Health Nurses (Essay Sample)

PAEDIATRIC AND CHILD HEALTH
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Introduction
Care and protection need to be maintained on all children, from a tender age to make sure that they grow up as responsible, healthy, and fit adults. The definition of a child depends on the law governing a respective state. In most cases, children are those below 16 years of age. Paediatric and Child Health Nurses are health practitioners whose main responsibility is taking care of all the children assigned to them. This essay focuses on the roles and responsibilities of these paediatrics, together with the Child Health Nurses. Further, the strategies employed to ensure child safe environments are laid out about the fundamental rights and freedoms of the children as well as their cultural needs.
Roles and Responsibilities of Paediatrics and Child Health Nurses
The first major role and responsibility of paediatrics and child health nurses is to give primary healthcare to the children. This will make sure that the children not only live health lives now, but also the same is ensured in the future. They do this by coming up with measures to prevent future health problems, promoting healthy living, coming up with curative measures, and rehabilitating those that are recovering from health complications (Mattsson, et. al., M 2013 p 528-528). Those that are in health care centres are tasked with the role of making these children comfortable while those in a community setting will monitor the children to make sure that basic care is taken care of.
It is the role of a child health nurse to connect the child with their parents and other trained health professionals. Especially when the child is very young, when they cannot talk, the child health nurse has the role of explaining to the parents the health issues about the child (O'Grady, & Van Graafeiland, 2012, p. 167). In addition to this, they will communicate with other professionals, to see to it that the child is given quality healthcare services. For example, the Child Health Nurse will liaise with a social worker in the community to ensure that children are given quality health services, or they will liaise with a dietician to make sure that the parents of children are advised on the best diets to feed their children on.
Child Health Nurses fight for healthcare rights of the children in the community, facilitate them in getting their rights, and avail these rights to the children. This means that the nurse will represent the child in places where these rights are being provided. They also make sure that the government and other relevant bodies have put all necessary measures to ensure the rights of the children. For example, a nurse will consult on the diet requirement of a malnourished child, and make sure that the necessary steps are made to remedy the situation. They will liaise with other healthcare professionals, the parents of the child, and members of the society and the state to come up with a solution (Roden, & Jarvis, 2012, p. 271-284).
The next role and responsibility of Child Health Nurses is to provide education, to the children, on the best health practices to uphold (Hunt, 2014 p. 22). They give all the important information to the parents, and the children themselves on ways they can prevent illness, they can promote it, and maintain the same. In their role as educators of health matters, they are expected to uphold the 4 C’s of character, which include maintaining confidence with their patients, being competent, communicating effectively, and being caring to them.
Another responsibility of the Child Care Nurse is to become a health consultant of the children and their parents of the children. The children, together with their parents, approach the Child Care Nurses to seek any advice on any healthcare issues that could be affecting them. This means that the nurse will make sure that they advice the parents, children and the people that are close to the children on the best health practices, the emerging health challenges, and the best way out of these challenges (Egerton, 2012 p. 30-32).
A Paediatric and a Child Health Nurse also acts a counsellor. This reflects in them guiding the parents and children to overcome health hazards that may face the children. In cases of child neglect or child abuse, the paediatrics come in to help the make informed decisions for purposes of their future (Tomlinson, Peden-McAlpine, & Sherman, 2012, p. 705-714). Among the strategies to be employed here is first considering the extent to which the child is affected so as to know how to approach them. In addition, children have rights that require them to be counselled to ensure they get the best available.
In addition, a paediatric nurse acts as a case manager. This entails the organization of the care to be administered to the children and the establishing if these set objectives are achieved. The paediatric nurse manages the different care units that may be present in the hospital clinics. All children need to get good health and, therefore, through this role the nurses help ensure the rights are accorded. They additionally ensure that risk management measures are put into place. Like a case manager, the paediatric nurse monitors the treatment services offered to children (Hunt, 2014 p. 18).
Paediatric nurses are involved in recreation roles. This entails them engaging the children in recreational activities. Through this, the children are maintained as active, and they do regular exercises (Law, McCann, & O'May, 2011, p. 2551-2560). The children can divert and engage in activities that drift their attention from the neglect and child abuse they may be going through. The strategies that can be employed on this role include having specific time for recreation so that the children do not skip the activities. Children expect that they have time outside their daily routine to rewind. Through this role, such expectation of the children to engage in recreational activities is met.
Paediatric nurses are expected to engage in social services that involve children. They are, therefore, social workers. Through social services, they provide the care the children need and also educate them on any arising matters. As social workers, they may refer the children and their parents as well to organisations that may offer them any required support. The strategy required here is to have programmes in place that take care of all children in respective areas. Through this, most children will access the social worker services of the paediatric nurses. Cultural needs show that children need care and support and thus the relevance of this specific role (O'Grady, & Van Graafeiland, 2012, p.167).
Paediatric nurses act as researchers (Borrow, Munns, & Henderson, 2011, p. 71-86). This is about their professional nature. They conduct research and engage in activities that can lead to obtaining relevant information. Through such information, the paediatric nurses can enforce changes that help improve the healthcare services offered to the children. Such research could also be done to find out the causes and challenges children face while under abuse ...