Who has the right to care, who has the right to judge?

Abstract

In 1997, I was shocked to get comments on an editorial I wrote. The editorial had sought to show that clinical judgement was not the sole province of the children's nurse but was shared with, particularly, the parent and prime carers. My shock was that children's nurses should be telling me that they reserved that right and could be the only ones who had skills in clinical judgement. My career has moved on and my role, while encompassing paediatrics, is also generic in nature, and it's easier to see why some generalist colleagues might perceive children's nurses to have a limited outlook when such attitudes to the ownership of clinical judgement prevail. In some respects, the development of advanced roles in children's nursing may be held back under such circumstances.