Nurses and midwives are invisible in Australian policy for safeguarding children

Our newly published paper explored how nurses’ and midwives’ roles are defined in Australia policies for children's protection, health, welfare and development. We found that despite nurses’ and midwives’ valuable contributions, their work in preventing and responding to child abuse and neglect is unrecognised. Nurses' and midwives' complex roles in supporting children and families was missing from some polices, and described in just a few words/sentences in others. In addition, there was no consistent definition of nursing and midwifery roles across policies. These inconsistencies and lack of recognition are despite international research highlighting nurses’ and midwives’ extensive contributions to safeguarding children (Lines et al., 2018).

The disconnects between Australian policies and nurse/midwife daily practices impacts how we prevent and intervene early to support children and families. If we don’t have policies clearly outlining nurses' and midwives' responsibilities, there will be no supporting infrastructure to enable their essential work (Lines et al., 2022). For example, policy guidance can facilitate essential education, support, resourcing and ongoing improvement for nurses and midwives. These factors are essential to facilitate nurses' and midwives' safeguarding work and reduce children's reliance on an overburdened child protection system.

Our ongoing work will engage with stakeholders to advocate for inclusion of nurses and midwives in future policies. We envision our advocacy and collaborations in this space will help ensure nurses and midwives can work at full capacity to make a difference for Australian children.

Manuscript published in the Collegian:

Lines, L. E. Kakyo, T. A. Grant, J. M. and Hutton, A. 2022, Invisibility of nurses and midwives in the public health response to child abuse and neglect : a policy review, Collegian, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.colegn.2022.09.002

References

Lines, L. E., Grant, J., & Hutton, A. E. (2018). How do nurses keep children safe from abuse and neglect, and does it make a difference? A scoping review. Journal of pediatric nursing, 43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pedn.2018.07.010

Lines, L. E., Kakyo, T. A., Grant, J. M., & Hutton, A. (2022). Invisibility of nurses and midwives in the public health response to child abuse and neglect: a policy reivew. Collegian. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.colegn.2022.09.002