Nurses’ body urges skills for all staff

Hospital support staff, including porters and receptionists,
should receive basic child protection training, according to
guidelines from the Royal College of Nursing.

It is calling for child protection to be made a core component
of all pre-registration nursing and midwifery training, and for
basic child protection awareness training to be available for
hospital support staff.

The guidelines advise how to spot signs of abuse and what action
to take. It also stresses that all nurses, regardless of what area
they work in, should undertake training.

Single child health records, including mechanisms for obtaining
records of previous admissions, should also be introduced.

RCN paediatric adviser Fiona Smith said that: “Although we know
all NHS Trusts are required to have a designated or named nurse for
child protection, we know from RCN members across the UK that
provision is still patchy.

“This has to be rectified immediately so that nurses and other
key health workers have access to expert child protection advice
and support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

The guidelines are a response to the Victoria Climbié
Report, which listed poor communication between agencies among the
reasons for the failure of services to save the eight year old.

– Child Protection: Every Nurse’s Responsibility
from www.rcn.org.uk