The Australian nursing workforce faces significant recruitment and retention challenges, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic.1 Nursing students may not receive adequate theoretical and practical preparation to care for paediatric patients, even if offered a paediatric experience. The Australian Nursing Midwifery Accreditation Council (ANMAC) does not require a standalone subject on caring for paediatric patients in the undergraduate (UG) nursing curriculum.2 With the uptake of postgraduate (PG) studies in paediatric nursing dependent on attitudes of registered nurses towards postgraduate education, this is of concern for specialty practice in a declining nursing workforce.3 The Bachelor of nursing degree is becoming a more generalist offering, with only sporadic exposure to paediatric clinical experience. This poses a risk to the paediatric nursing workforce that may be challenged by children’s diverse physical, psychological, and social presentations.
Despite advocacy for children to be cared for by paediatric specialist nurses, the Commonwealth of Australia supports a generalist nursing degree.4 Generalist nurse registration allows Registered Nurses (RNs) to work across diverse clinical settings, and postgraduate education is not required to work with children. In 2022, O’Malley et al5 said: “As ‘generalist nurses’ they are expected to possess diverse knowledge and skills.” It is only when graduate nurses begin employment that the challenges of paediatric and family health nursing become apparent.6
This discussion paper presents the importance of partnerships between industry and tertiary education providers who are best placed to support undergraduate and postgraduate nurse education to bolster the recruitment and retention of a qualified and prepared paediatric nursing workforce.5