What is the Community Children’s Nursing Team?

The Community Children’s Nursing Team is made up of specialist paediatric nurses and nursing assistants.

We are trained to care for children and their families. We work in partnership with parents, carers, specialist hospitals, local hospitals and other professionals and offer highly skilled nursing care in your home or in the community.

We aim to treat children at home whenever possible, so your child doesn’t have to go into hospital unnecessarily. We will write to your GP when you start seeing the team and again when you are discharged.

What do we offer?

We offer support to children with complex health needs and their families.

These services include:

• taking part in discharge planning meetings to ensure the safe transition from hospital to home
• administration of intravenous, subcutaneous or intra muscular medication
• gastrostomy and naso-gastric support
• wound care
• post-surgery care
• support, information and training
• oxygen care at home
• short-term interventions, such as venepunture and sleep study monitoring
• palliative care, including a 24-hour service
at the end of a child’s life
• oncology (cancer) community support
• cystic fibrosis community support.

Please contact us or visit www.kentcht.nhs.uk to view the eligibility criteria for this service and for more information.

Who is eligible and how can you access the service?

Our service is open to all children and young people up to the age of 19 who are in education, with a clinical nursing need. They will need to be registered with a GP in east Kent.

Referrals to the service can be made by a healthcare professional or you can refer your child directly.