Children and young people

Children and young people’s nursing is underpinned by the understanding that children and young people have their own and differing needs to adults.

This field of practice believes that the nurse’s primary focus is to assist the child, young person and those caring for them to prevent, promote and support their physical and mental wellbeing. Ensuring a child and young person’s physical and mental health needs remain central to care provided enables children, young people and families to reach their full potential.

Children and young people's nursing encompasses care delivered in a wide range of settings including acute, education, hospice, community and youth justice settings. Children and young people’s nurses have a wide range of career options such as working in general and specialist acute wards, health visiting, school nursing, mental health nursing, neonatal nursing, looked after children and safeguarding nursing, as well as community nursing and specialist nurse roles. There are also non-clinical roles that many children and young people’s Nurses may decide to move into using their vast transferable skills such as commissioning and workforce planning. More information about children and young people’s nursing careers can be found here: Health careers - Children's nurse.

The RCN also has a range of career resources that can be found on our Nursing Careers Resource.

Carli has been appointed as the Head of Nursing Practice - Children and Young People (CYP) in the Nursing Practice Academy of the RCN Institute of Excellence. 

Being Australian and having completed her Nursing Degree at Sydney University, Carli has utilised nursing to travel and gain extensive international clinical experience in a variety of fields before finding her passion in Children’s Nursing and Paediatric Critical Care (PCC). 

Carli completed her MSc Advanced Nursing in 2012 in comparing educational approaches in achieving clinical competence. Carli is currently undertaking her PhD in the exploration of children’s nurses and the retention challenges faced. Carli was the PCC Educator for 11 years at Nottingham Children’s Hospital prior to her role as Director of Clinical Skills (Associate Professor) in the School of Health Sciences (SHS) at University of Nottingham. Carli has also had roles as the Consultant Editor for RCNi Nursing Children and Young People and as the TOC21 Chief Examiner for Children’s Nursing.

Carli’s clinical interest and expertise predominantly focuses on Paediatric Critical Care but is extremely passionate about all professional nursing issues whilst advocating for children and young people and children’s nurses. 

Carli is passionate about research, teaching and learning and has extensive knowledge and skills in delivering professional education. She works in collaboratively in partnership with the NHS, private and independent sector, and professional, statutory and regulatory bodies. 

Carli's priorities for the coming months are:

• supporting and empowering the CYP workforce
• exploring the challenges of mental and physical health of CYP and their families to who care is provided
• ensuring all our work is considered from an equality, diversity, and inclusion perspective.

To enable progress in these priority areas she will:

Listen to, learn from, encourage, and work with RCN members to provide support and guidance to enable the delivery of crucial and contemporary CYP work.

Work collaboratively with all teams to ensure the challenges facing CYP, their families, and the workforce supporting them, are acknowledged and prioritised.

Collaborate to ensure the CYP nursing voice is heard; whilst utilising expertise to influence and create change at strategic levels to shape service provision and priorities at a local, national, UK and international level.