The changes I've seen: my career as a paediatric parenteral nutrition CNS

As a registered sick children's nurse since 1988, I'm now in the final stages of my career, which has seen me in two main specialty areas of children's nursing—as a neonatal surgical unit nurse for 15 years, and my current role as a parenteral nutrition clinical nurse specialist (CNS) for nearly 20 years.

I first experienced home parenteral nutrition (HPN) discharge planning while in a neonatal unit. But in those days, there were no manikins on which to provide simulated training, and there were no homecare companies managing PN compounding and delivering ancillaries. Patients returned to the neonatal unit for blood tests and reviews and parents would just call the neonatal unit direct for advice, especially if a child had a temperature. Children often arrived in the neonatal unit at random times if they were unwell. It was as if they were home ‘on a pass’, with a bed in the unit to come back to.