Children's nurse education--what is important to the service user?

This paper provides an overview of service user involvement of a group of children and young people with palliative care needs from a Children's hospice in the design and development of the BSc (Hons) Children's Nursing programme at Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU), Kent. It will specifically describe the children and young people's service user involvement in three key areas: programme development and contribution to the curriculum, selection of students and participation in the assessment of the students' clinical experience. The introduction of the new Nursing and Midwifery Council Standards for pre-registration nurse education (2010) has led for the need to involve service users at the planning and development phase of new nurse educational programmes to ensure the delivery of high-quality care.

Interprofessional working through the eating abroad together project.

This article explores a collaboration between the health, social care and education faculties at Canterbury Christ Church University in the UK to address the Labour government's aims to promote healthy eating, language learning and cultural awareness in children, and collaborative working among professionals. The Eating Abroad Together project used healthy eating as a vehicle to promote the acquisition of language skills and the exchange of cultural experiences. It also promoted cross-curricular working between children's nursing students and student teachers in primary schools.

An inter-professional approach to children's nursing education.

Nurses caring for children and young people do not practice in isolation but work as members of a multi-professional healthcare team. The Inter-professional programme delivered at Canterbury Christ Church University offers pathways in midwifery, adult nursing, child nursing, medical imaging, occupational therapy, social work and operating department practice. Benefits include the focus on children and their families from the outset, and learning to nurse using a multi-professional approach.