Winners of Nursing Children and Young People awards revealed

This year's winners of the Nursing Children and Young People awards looked at parental experiences of neonatal care and same-sex couples with adopted children

Two children’s nurse researchers examining the experiences of parents with children in healthcare will receive this year’s awards from Nursing Children and Young People.

The awards of £750 each were offered by the journal, supported by the RCN’s Research in Child Health (RiCH) community, to pay for the cost of presenting their work at conferences.

• RELATED: Non-biological lesbian mothers’ experiences of accessing healthcare for their children

University of Birmingham lecturer in children’s nursing Lucille Kelsall-Knight conducted research into the experiences of same-sex couples with adopted children when they access healthcare.

She said: ‘There were examples of positive access to healthcare for children and their families, but there were also examples that I felt showed micro-aggressive behaviour.’

Examples of discriminatory terms

She said examples were the use of discriminatory terms and asking a parent: ‘Who shall I put down as the father?’

Ms Kelsall-Knight hopes to expand her research in the future to include the experiences of bisexual and transgender couples accessing healthcare with their children.

• RELATED: Plans for US-style project for parents with babies in neonatal intensive care units

University of Hertfordshire senior lecturer in children’s nursing Julia Petty carried out research for her doctorate on parental stories from the neonatal unit.

From 20 interviews she created a website, Stories from the Neonatal Unit, that can be used by other lecturers. Parents’ narratives are presented digitally using audio, illustrations and animation with actors voicing some of the parents’ stories.

Clear implications for practice and of interest to many children's nurses

Dr Petty said: ‘I wanted the stories to be open access so people can pick them out and use them in teaching if they want to.’

RiCH group chair Kate Oulton, consultant nurse for learning disabilities at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital, said: ‘We had a number of high-quality applications this year and it was great to see a diverse range of research projects from nurses working in different clinical and educational roles. 

‘Those selected were well-written with clear aims and an element of originality. We felt the results presented would be of interest to many children’s nurses, with clear implications for practice.’

Both winners will be writing about their research in Nursing Children and Young People.

Find out more

Stories from the Neonatal Unit