Christine Walker
Celebrating the work of learning disability nurses
At a time where morale in learning disability nursing seems low, light can be found through the Positive Choices conference, and LD nurse Melanie Davies being awarded the top accolade in nursing.

'We need all of you and more of you' - CNO tells LD conference
Combating student attrition and encouraging more people into learning disability nurses were...
Features
Children's Nursing: Fit for the Future?
Make your feelings known about the future of the children's nursing degree, as concerns...
Channel 4 has exposed the frustrating inadequacies of institutional care
Dispatches investigation found that inpatients with learning disabilities at St Andrew's Healthcare were subject to shocking treatment.
Is the children's nursing degree about to be scrapped?
Nursing Children and Young People editorial by Christine Walker.
Keep the pressure on commissioners to fund children’s care
As demand for children’s care services rises, funding is being cut.
We need to attract more students to palliative care
Nursing Children and Young People editorial by Christine Walker
Too much talk and not enough action over obesity plan
Nursing Children and Young People editor Christine Walker discusses whether targets set in...
Review finds nurses under too much pressure
Independent Review of Children’s Cardiac Services makes 32 recommendations
The postcode lottery in health care lives on
How local authorities in England are making budget cuts
Stretched to breaking point
A review of 17 regional neonatal transport services has shown that they are ‘understaffed, under-resourced and part time’, but that these problems are not related to the dedication of the nurses and doctors who work in them.
Collaborating on asthma care
Too many children die from asthma attacks that could have been prevented if their condition had been managed more effectively. These deaths occur despite a plethora of national guidance on good practice.
As cost of living grows, a 1% rise won’t go far
A pay rise of no more than 1% is what nurses in England can expect in the coming year. This – coupled with fewer automatic incremental pay increases year on year under the national pay system Agenda for Change and more links to performance – is in the health department’s main evidence to the independent pay review body.
International Council of Nurses congress 2015, a personal retrospective
Christine Walker, editor of Nursing Children and Young People, looks back on the ICN's biennial conference in Seoul
An expensive occupation
Anything that puts people into debt and deters them from training cannot be good. So it was alarming to hear chancellor George Osborne’s announcement that the publicly funded bursary is to be scrapped, and that future nursing students will have to take out loans to cover tuition fees and living expenses.
ICN president hopes the RCN will rejoin the organisation
President of the International Council of Nurses Judith Shamian has told RCNi she hopes that the RCN will renew its membership of her organisation after leaving in 2014
ICN urges nurses to contribute to education in developing countries
The International Council of Nurses is appealing for donations to its new Florence Nightingale International Foundation Endowment Fund, which aims to support 500 girls through high school in developing countries
Use of manikins for nurse training does not hamper hands-on care, study suggests
International Council of Nurses conference in Seoul hears how patient care skills are not compromised if learned through simulation