Finding the voice of clinical experience: participatory action research with registered nurses in developing a child critical care nursing curriculum.

The voice of clinical nurses is important to find and hear in the design of curricula. A participative action research project proposed to add this voice to the design of a new Critical Care Child Nursing programme at the University of Cape Town (UCT). Nurses' experiences of nursing critically ill children and their perceived learning needs in this context, were the central focus of the study. Participants were registered nurses working in the paediatric intensive care unit at the Red Cross Children's Hospital (a specialist hospital), which offers secondary and tertiary care in the Cape Town region and beyond. Data were gathered in five focussed group discussions. Findings indicate that the Critical Care Child Nurse needs not only a specialised knowledge base and acutely developed assessment skills, but also astute interpersonal skills. The nurse's professional identity and integration into the multidisciplinary team need exploring. Together with the development of interpersonal skills, the nurse needs to engage the child and family.