Summary

Abstract

In this final short chapter, Laurence Baldwin attempts to bring together the themes of the book and look at whether there are things that are unique which nurses bring to children and young people in distress. Drawing on the contribution of colleagues he suggests that instead we should look at those things which nurses prioritise, often without thinking that they are doing it, the ‘taken for granted’ elements of nursing’s underlying conceptual frameworks that shape our identity. These things that nurses see as being important, alongside the generic skills and specialist knowledge, are difficult to define and articulate. Yet they are the very things that children, young people and families, the ‘experts by experience’, say are the most important qualities they look for and value in skilled helpers.