Paediatric nurses, children and the development of trust

Nurses in paediatric settings work hard to develop trusting relationships with the children in their care. There are, however, barriers to these trusting relationships, because nurses are often involved in painful or frightening procedures for children, and sometimes parents may hamper the development of trust between nurse and child. Nurses use a range of strategies to try and gain confidence and co-operation from children, but recognize that at times it is necessary to simply restrain and carry on. In exploring the experiences of paediatric nurses, it became evident that the need to carry out painful procedures while trying to maintain relationships with children was taken for granted in this type of practice setting. What did not appear evident to the nurses was the dichotomy that they viewed trust as really important, but considered breaking trust to be essential.