Pre-school children frequently seen but seldom heard in nursing care

Abstract

A significant number of users of nursing services are pre-school children, and have a right to be heard in matters affecting their health. Despite nurses' duty to seek and take seriously the views of children in matters concerning children's health, children are rarely directly consulted as consumers of health care. Thus, children's voices are largely unheard in nursing practice. Furthermore, research about children's experience of illness generally excludes preschool children. Therefore, preschool children's voices are also mostly unheard in nursing research about the experience of being ill. Consequently, there is little evidence from nursing practice or research to show the potential benefits of ensuring these voices are heard. This line of reasoning forms the basis of recommending the need for research that seeks to understand how preschool children experience being ill and how they communicate those experiences to others.