Communication Skills for Children's Nurses

"This excellent text will help nurses develop an awareness of a range of communication frameworks and how they might be utilised in contemporary child health nursing to communicate with children, their families, fellow healthcare professionals and each other in their day to day working lives… It should be on every student's reading list!"
Dr Edward Alan Glasper, Professor of Children's and Young People's Nursing, The University of Southampton, UK
"This is an important and much needed book. Logical and well presented, it has episodes of reflection which can be implemented, and activities that provide exemplars about communication that will enhance learning. I particularly found useful the chapters on the legal and ethical aspects, research and communicating with children using technology."
Linda Shields, Professor of Nursing - Tropical Health, James Cook University and Townsville Health Service District, Australia
This guide will help children's nurses tocommunicate with confidence, sensitivity and effectiveness; to meet the individual needs of children and their families. The book explores different aspects of communicating in this challenging environment using vignettes, examples, practice insights and tips.
The book emphasises the importance of listening to and respecting children’s views and rights, in addition to respecting parent responsibility, rights and duty to act in the child's best interests. The authors show how a balance between protective exclusion and facilitated inclusion is core to communicating with children and families.
Key topics covered include:

- Communicating during challenging and sensitive times
- The importance of being culturally sensitive and self-aware
- Meeting the needs of vulnerable and disadvantaged children
- Engaging with children who experience difficulty in communicating
- Ethical and legal dimensions of communicating with families
- Appreciating the nature of ‘voice’ in research with children
Contributors: Stacey Atkinson, Frances Binns, Debbie Fallon, Noirín Hayes, Paula Hicks, Philomena Keogh, Ursula Kilkelly, Philip Larkin, Joan Livesley, Emer Murphy, Colman Noctor, Eileen Savage, Joanna Smith, Vicky Stewart and Janet Wray.