Nursing and Every Child Matters

As with all attempts to describe the implications of policy developments for nurses and nursing, the diverse nature of the profession needs to be addressed. In the case of Every Child Matters, it is even clearer that any nurse working with patients has obligations that relate to ECM and the child protection legislation. Gone are the days when a nurse working solely in an adult area can claim that it. is unnecessary for him/her to know about child policy and child protection. For instance, a nurse caring for a woman who has been subject to domestic violence needs to know whether or not there were children in the household. If children were present, the police need to investigate, as this triggers a newer principle of the child protection legislation to protect children being exposed to violence. This chapter therefore attempts to cover the full range of implications for nursing across the full range of nurses and nursing, including midwifery and health visiting.