The Irish Government is committed to provide the people of Ireland with an evidence-based health service. From a nursing perspective the findings of this study indicate that a number of strategies have to be introduced or enhanced in the practice settings before this commitment can be realized.

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A major advantage in having a ward-based clinical education facilitator is the benefit of having access to someone who can concentrate solely on clinical education and support with attempts to narrow the theory-practice divide.

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Healthcare practitioners need to be knowledgeable of, and sensitive to, LGBT issues.

Recently, increased recognition has been attributed to the requirement to include the views of child patients in the planning of new health care services so that contemporary buildings can be designed to enhance future experience. This is important, especially since the voices of young children are so often under-represented or represented through adult proxies. The purpose of this article is to share young children's perspectives of what constitutes ideal physical design features for hospital-built environments. Using a participatory art-based approach, data were collected from 55 children (aged five-eight years) across three children's hospitals in Ireland. Emergent findings revealed three broad themes: personal space, physical environment and access. This study is important for nurses, clinicians and environmental designers because it outlines what a supportive child health care environment should constitute. Hospital environments need to be constructed not just to be child friendly, but to also respect children's right to dignity, privacy, family support and self-control.

The critical issue for public health nurse managers is to determine how job satisfaction can be improved. Greater collaboration and consultation between managers and public health nurses can be regarded as a useful way to begin this process, especially if contemporary nursing is to embrace a responsive approach within the profession.

Aim. This article presents the core concept of 'visible-ness' that emerged from an ethnographic study, which explored the nature of communication, for children (for ease of reading children refers to children and young people), admitted to a children's hospital in the Republic of Ireland. Background. The importance of engaging with both child and family has been espoused as fundamental in promoting 'family'-centred care. To date, studies have almost exclusively explored parents' and nurses' perspectives of the nature of parent participation and nurse-parent interactions and relationships. Although there is evidence of an emerging body of knowledge, which explores children's perspectives of their information, and communication needs, little is known empirically about the communication process between children and members of the health care team in inpatient hospital settings. Design. The principles of ethnography underpinned the study design. Method. Fieldwork took place over four months in one 35-bedded children's ward. Forty-nine children, ranging in ages from 6 to 16 years with a variety of medical and surgical conditions, participated. Various modes of data collection were employed, namely semi-participant observations, unstructured interviews, draw and write technique and a child-friendly 'stick a star' quiz. Results. The core concept to emerge was that of 'visible-ness'. 'Visible-ness' existed along a continuum consisting of two polar ends, 'being overshadowed' and 'being at the forefront'. These polar ends illuminated the degree to which children were, or wanted to be, included in the communication process and the extent to which children's agenda was addressed. Conclusion. This study provides empirical insight into children's experiences of communication in an inpatient hospital setting. A key recommendation calls for the development of communication assessment strategies to determine the 'ideal' position children would like to occupy, at any given point in time, along the 'visible-ness' continuum. Relevance to practice. This study emphasises the need for all health professionals to embrace the individualism of each child patient with regard to their specific communication needs.