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In the UK and elsewhere, family-centred care is the cornerstone of children's nursing. Fathers' roles in families have evolved in recent decades and they are increasingly involved in their children's lives and healthcare. However, few studies of parents' experiences of their children's hospitalisation refer to fathers. To address this gap in the evidence and to support family-centred care, we focused this research on fathers' experiences during their acutely ill children's stay in hospital.To gain an understanding of fathers' experiences of care during their child's unplanned admission and their interactions with children's nurses.An ethnographic design was used that involved participant observation and interviews with fathers and nurses.Fathers played active roles during hospitalisation. They adopted a protective role, continued to provide for their families through paid work, provided emotional and material support to mothers and siblings and participated directly in care. Despite this active involvement, children's nurses sometimes perceived fathers as marginal to their child's care.Fathers are active participants in care and children's nurses need to be aware of the importance of practising truly family-centred care.

Knowledge about the special needs of children and adolescents in hospital has advanced in the past 40 years. There is now general acknowledgement that they should have services tailored to their emotional and developmental needs, and should be cared for by specially trained practitioners. However, admission to hospital is a stressful experience even for those going into the most child-friendly environments. Preparation can do much to relieve anxiety, and a new website has been set up to give children the information they need about their health and what to expect in hospital.

This paper examines the use of research findings related to the negotiation of care roles between paediatric nurses and the parents of children in hospital. The implications for future practice are discussed.

Nursing care for hospitalised adolescents should be based on a thorough knowledge of their normal development while supporting and maintaining healthy growth, despite the impact of a disruptive illness. Care for adolescents should be achieved through partnership, taking into account their views and opinions, offering support and guidance as well as care. Adolescents have the right to be involved in decisions about all aspects of their care. This article explores the benefits of Orem's model of nursing in the care of this group

'Health Services cater for the child, the adult, but rarely for the adolescent who has special needs and sensitivities. As far back as 1959 the Platt report recognised that adolescents have specific problems. Paediatric wards have come a long way in meeting the needs of babies and young children, but adolescents seem to have been neglected. This paper looks at the normal development of adolescents, and demonstrates how an admission to hospital can have an adverse effect on them. It then looks at the benefit of asking adolescents their own views so that our understanding of them will be greater, and the environment they are nursed in more appropriate.

This paper reports on an investigation of the emotional adjustment by children and their parents to paediatric hospital admission for planned ear, nose and throat surgery. It discusses the first phase of that adjustment and the importance of the initial clinic consultation in shaping subsequent coping. The study developed directly from clinical practice and the findings are expected to feed back into practice. The assessment of an experimental approach to preparation, which tests the efficacy of a fresh appraisal of the way in which children and their parents are prepared for this elective surgery, is studied. While there are important findings that relate to all three phases of the experience, that is, the pre-admission, in-hospital and post-hospital adjustment phases, the impact of the initial clinic consultation alone is discussed in relation to the implications for practice arising from the study.

This paper will discuss different ways of preparing children for the experience of hospital, the use of different methods to suit varying situations, how they relate to children of differing ages and the practicality of implementing such schemes.