Innovation
Children as service users are involved in the recruitment and selection of student children’s nurses. A working party is held with children aged 8 – 11 years old to discuss the process and for the children to devise questions which are important to them.
On selection days the children come to the university and form their own interview panel, they ask the candidates three or four questions. The children then make comments and score each candidate. These scores and comments are considered alongside other aspects of the recruitment process to select suitable candidates to the children’s nursing programme.
What prompted innovation?
The involvement of service users in all aspects of health care is recognised as being relevant and important. Within Children’s Nursing service users are children and their families, but primarily the children. The importance of listening to the child’s voice is invaluable in providing services that are relevant to children and young people. With this in mind the children’s nursing team at the University of Hertfordshire wanted to capture the opinions of children within the recruitment process.
It was felt that asking the parents / carers to be our service users was not the route that was required and it is the children themselves along with their opinions and thoughts that are important.
What makes innovation different?
- Using children as a valued aspect of the requirement process brings its own challenges and it would be so much easier to engage with parents / carers as service users as has been done previously in different aspects of the programme.
- The children give a new dimension to the recruitment process and it is their involvement in the process that makes it different.
Changes in practice
This innovation has been running for two years and is now firmly embedded in the recruitment and selection process of student children’s nurses. By involving and valuing the children’s input, along with other entry criteria, we hope that we are able to recruit a more suitable candidate who completes the programme and continues into a successful career within children’s nursing.
Impact
- The impact will be seen over a period of time; as a result of this innovation we anticipate that attrition will decrease.
- The innovation was recognised by the Faculty of Health and Human Science and the author was awarded a Faculty award.
- Positive evaluation has been received from the candidates:
“Really good experience, as you were able to show off your personality, and show your interaction with children. An experience I would recommend for other candidates”.
“It was a great way of showing how we interacted with children and how they were responding to us. It was definitely a test in itself”.
“Being interviewed by children gave me an insight into the care that they like to receive when being treated in a hospital environment”.
- It was also important to value the children’s input and to ask them what they gained from the experience, again positive evaluation was received:
“I thought it was very good asking our own question”
“I learnt that I enjoyed interviewing people even if they’re older than me. Also that grownups get scared of children!!!”
Dissemination
- Poster presentation at Learning and Teaching Conference, internal to University of Hertfordshire, May 2013
- Conference presentation at RCN Joint Children and Young People Forum conference and exhibition ‘Making the principles of nursing practice work for children and young people’, October 2012