Children's Nursing Case Book

Nursing children and young people is increasingly complex requiring nurses to apply their knowledge and skills to a wide scope of illnesses and situations. The challenges to nurses to analyse, reflect on different perspectives and then adapt practices to the benefit of service users are reflected in this book.

Each scenario in this text is created based on real life cases and practice. The 23 cases connect knowledge with practice and guide you through the anatomy and physiology and the physical and psychological responses to stressors, which are then linked to intervention decisions. Cases include::

• Providing care for children and young people with life-limiting conditions
• Acutely ill children including those with asthma, and an infant with pyrexia and febrile convulsions
• Long term conditions including diabetes, renal disease and the transfer to adult services
• Those who are critically ill such as a child with typhoid fever and a toddler with a head injury
• Supporting emotional and mental health in anorexia and autistic spectrum disorder
• Promoting healthy lifestyles, considering obesity and risky behaviour
• Care for children with trauma, including a child with a learning disability

Remaining vigilant for indicators of safeguarding concern, encouraging self-care, and promoting mental resilience are all incorporated, with examples from a range of care environments. Calculation exercises are interspersed to keep these skills sharp.

This Case Book is an ideal learning resource, tailored to help nurses learn in a focused way about practice and excel, whether on placements, in academic work, or in professional practice.

Developed from a partnership between a University Research Group and an NHS Trust, this practical childrens nursing case textbook bridges theory and practice by presenting 23 case scenarios on complex, sensitive and difficult to manage clinical situations in an accessible and user-friendly manner. The inbuilt activities, calculation exercises, question and answer format and extra resources make this an excellent interactive resource for nurses to engage in critical thinking and reflection about each case.
Dr. Veronica Lambert, Senior Lecturer Childrens Nursing, Dublin City University, Ireland

This book will be useful for nurses in the UK who work with children and families in a variety of settings. Its format based on case studies and what would you do and what do you need to do scenarios will make it a useful tool for teaching clinical care for children and families.
Professor Linda Shields, School of Nursing, Midwifery and Indigenous Health, Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, Australia

What Tony Long has achieved is to produce a textbook with contributions from esteemed practicing childrens nurses which gives enhanced credibility to each of the case studies. Tony and his colleagues have created these case studies to help childrens and young peoples nurses fully understand the complexities of the needs of both children and their families or carers during their healthcare trajectory.

The contributors to this textbook  fully appreciate that the  specificity of knowledge and its application to practice across the parameters of healthcare delivery and across the life course healthcare journey of the child, from the neonatal period through to adolescent transition to adult healthcare, requires a specific knowledge source. This book reflects the reality that childrens nurses work in many areas from primary care through to tertiary care, from neonatal intensive care through to child and adolescent mental healthcare. Each of the case studies provides a focal point for this knowledge source and each seeks to illuminate good practice based on sound empirical evidence.

The burden of ill health in childhood can only be alleviated if the nurses who deliver care to children and young people fully understand the complexities of ill health across the age continuum. This is because of what can happen during childhood, from conception onwards, ranging from obesity, heart disease and mental ill health, though to educational attainment and future economic status. Professor Long and his colleagues are to be congratulated in producing this new book which will address each of these cognate areas but which also never forgets the primary mission of the childrens nurse which is to uphold their mantra of  the child first and always.
Alan Glasper, Emeritus Professor of childrens and young peoples nursing at the University of Southampton, UK