Partnership in care: a critical exploration of how this may be applied to children attending the Accident and Emergency department

Partnership in care is an emerging theme within children's nursing. There has, however, been much debate in the literature about what partnership in care is, but little consensus has been achieved as to its meaning. Partnership in care has been examined from the perspectives of both the parents and the nurses, although principally the work to date has focused on children's wards. More recently the work on partnership in care has examined how this may work in the children's out-patient department and also within community children's nursing. Little appears to have been written about partnership in care in the Accident and Emergency (A&E) environment, and some possible reasons for this have been postulated. Three aspects of partnership in care: negotiation and equality of care, parents as equal partners, and responsibility for care being shifted have all been examined and applied to the A&E setting. Suggestions for research are offered throughout the discussion. Finally, the role of the registered children's nurse is examined in view of the analysis.