Education on childrens complex care needs in general nursing curricula in Europe: An inductive content analysis.

Nursing programmes must prepare children's nurses to respond effectively to the health needs of children and young people. The aim of this study was to examine general nursing curricula for child-related content. A non-experimental descriptive study design was used. Curricular plans from 18 countries where general nursing education was the only requirement to care for children with complex care needs in the community were analysed. Curricula were obtained from institutions who educated the largest number of student nurses in each country. An inductive analysis of the curricula was carried out. Almost three-quarters of the curricula (n = 13) offered one or more compulsory core modules on children. The content varied from one to sixteen ECTS credits showing a wide variation in the focus on children in these curricula. In 12 of the 18 countries most of the child-related content was in other modules. The sample curricula from five countries had no compulsory modules on children. Child-related curricular content varied considerably across countries, with little content focused on children with complex care needs. This can illustrate that nurses are not always adequately prepared to meet the needs of sick children.

Principles for provision of integrated complex care for children across the acute-community interface in Europe.

This Viewpoint presents and discusses the development of the first core principles and standards for effective, personalised care of children living with complex care needs in Europe. These principles and standards emerged from an analysis of data gathered on several areas, including the integration of care for the child at the acute-community interface, the referral-discharge interface, the social care interface, nursing preparedness for practice, and experiences of the child and family. The three main principles, underpinned by a child-centric approach, are access to care, co-creation of care, and effective integrated governance. Collectively, the principles and standards offer a means to benchmark existing services for children living with complex care needs, to influence policy in relation to service delivery for these children, and to provide a suite of indicators with which to assess future service developments in this area.