National research has demonstrated that young people delay attending health services due to a lack of knowledge, fear of confidentiality breaches and uncertainty of their reception by staff. The lack of specialist adolescent services and training available for health professionals has been identified as a grave concern.
It is therefore crucial that any health professional working with young people in any setting has the skills and confidence to develop positive trusting relationships with young people, thus facilitating comprehensive assessment and appropriate support.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Adolescent Health Forum and the RCN Institute are working in partnership with WestFocus Health Network, to develop a new national ‘pocket guide’ for staff working with young people across all health care settings.
The guide's content will be based on the knowledge need as identified by health care professionals. It seeks to give information, key principles and practical tips for working with young people. The guide will be linked to the RCN website so updated text can be made available.
National focus groups have been held in Wrexham, Birmingham, Huddersfield, Glasgow, Belfast and London, with nurses and health professionals from the acute hospital and community care settings. These have identified knowledge and skills deficits and ethical dilemmas arising in the care of young people. These have been used to develop a national survey.
Additionally they have identified a range of solutions and ‘top tips’ for working with young people. The survey has been distributed online via the RCN and was distributed at RCN Congress.
A focus group document was published by the Royal College of Nursing, which summarises the outcomes of the focus group surveys of the Adolesense project. This shows a high demand among health care staff for a guide and website. The Pocket Guide is currently being written for publication later in 2008.
