Once Upon a Time - Exhibition Launch
A history of children and young people's nursing
27 Jun 2024, 17:30 - 20:00
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Join us for the launch of our new exhibition on children and young people’s nursing.
Join us for the hybrid launch of our new exhibition on children and young people’s nursing. Join us in person and enjoy free refreshments and a chance to look around the exhibition, alongside drop-in activities and talks on the past and present of children’s care from 6pm-7.30pm. Join online from 6pm for talks and post your questions for our panel in the audience Q&A.
The exhibition explores the history of children and young people’s nursing – from the first children’s hospitals in the 1800s to the development of family-centred care. Explore emotive tokens from the historic Foundling Hospital, children’s artwork from Bethlem and objects and stories loaned by nurses past and present.
Speakers include:
- Explore the history of children and young people’s nursing with Sue Ward, former Group Deputy Chief Nurse and part of the group of volunteers who curated the RCN Library and Archives’ History of Children and Young People’s nursing exhibition, Once Upon a Time.
- Hear how children and their families living within a remote and rural area receive the most appropriate and peaceful end of life care in the absence of a specialist palliative care team. Finalists and Runners Up for the Children's Nursing & Midwifery Award at last year’s RCN Scotland Nurse of the Year Awards, hear from the Capella Team children’s community nursing team in NHS Dumfries and Galloway, described by their colleagues as a team that makes a positive difference during the worst time of a child and parent’s life. With access to more urban hospices limited, the team seek to ensure a family centred approach to care, listening to all individual’s needs and adapting to ensure that they can support a good death, supporting the family throughout the process. The team thrive on being able to make one small difference that can have such a positive impact and will share their learning for rural community teams and palliative care.
- Hear about community children’s nursing care for children with a disability and how Brenda Kirk, Highly Commended Finalist for the Children's Nursing & Midwifery Award at last year’s RCN Scotland Nurse of the Year Awards, has championed children and their families to enable improvements in health outcomes and their quality of life. Working within the national neurodiversity pathway, Brenda set up streams for pre-school and school age children ensuring the nurse is the first point of contact with the ability to prioritise urgent need. As Clinical Nurse Specialist Team Lead, Brenda led and developed the Paediatric Disability team at Renfrewshire HSCP, and is described by her colleagues as a shining example of community children’s nursing, Brenda is now Child Health Manager for West Argyll, and her goal is to ensure that children with disabilities are not invisible and to continue to promote the requirement for services to enable children with a disability to live full lives.
Joining us in person? Drop in activities at the exhibition launch include:
- Show and Tell showcasing the history of children and young people’s nursing through objects from the RCN Archives.
- Add your reflections on children’s health and nursing to our creative question panel.
Children aren’t just “small adults”. They have different health and care needs, which change as they grow and develop. Nursing for young people has often been ahead of the curve and influenced adult care. Yet this has not always been acknowledged, and children’s nurses have had to fight for recognition of their specialist role. This exhibition shows that by recognising this past and by listening to and valuing young people’s voices, we can better prepare for our future.
The exhibition was co-created with Royal College of Nursing members, many of whom work in children and young people’s nursing or have in the past. The volunteer team was involved in every stage of the exhibition from research, to writing exhibition panels, to exhibition design.
Objects on display include items from Bethlem Museum of the Mind, the Foundling Museum, the Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret, Southwark Heritage Centre, and objects and stories loaned by nurses past and present.
The exhibition also includes artwork by pupils at St. Columba’s Primary School in Annan, Dumfries & Galloway, Trinity School in Carlisle, Eday Community School on the Island of Eday in Orkney and Westray Junior High School on the island of Westray, Orkney.
Following the launch, the exhibition will be open for visitors Mondays to Thursdays 10 – 4pm.
RCN Scotland Headquarters (Edinburgh)
42 South Oswald Road
Edinburgh
EH9 2HH
2.5 miles from Edinburgh Waverley Station
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Page last updated - 19/06/2024
