Study finds it is not appropriate to offer advice on admission to acute care, but it can be beneficial to do so at follow up, say Nicola Greenwood and Kiara Lewis

Aim To explore children’s nurses’ attitudes to providing health promotion advice to overweight children and their families during hospital admissions.

Methods Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted in a private room in the ward setting. Interviews were recorded and transcribed, and thematic analysis of the transcripts was undertaken.

Findings The six themes generated from responses were: responsibility for health promotion; sensitivity of the topic; long-term benefits; parents – a barrier; need for training; and need for institutional support.

Conclusion Further research with acute care children’s nurses in the UK is required to validate the study findings. More work is also needed to explore the ethics of health promotion in the acute care setting.