Songbook For Children’s Nurses
The idea is to create a collection of songs to be used as a tool in children’s nursing.
Songs that soothe, distract, explain, reassure etc. Also to develop the nurses’ skills in both singing these songs and in creating their own. The aim is to leave a legacy of songs in various forms (book, CD, maybe some video) and ideally a singing module on the children’s nursing course.
PROPOSED CONTENT
Songs For Specific Situations
Silly Songs For Distracting
Soothing Songs
Speaking Songs
How To Sing These Songs
How To Invent Your Own Songs
Songs In Other Languages
Rhythm Games
RESPONSES FROM NURSES SO FAR
The Idea
All the children’s nurses I’ve spoken to so far agree that there should be singing on children’s wards and that this songbook is a good idea.
Self-consciousness
Nurses suggested the biggest issue for them would be shyness/ confidence or rather feeling self-conscious. If they thought no other staff were around it would be fine to sing to children but some nurses would feel embarrassed singing with colleagues in earshot. If there was a culture of singing in children’s wards this would be different.
The song book should try and address these issues.
Situations – Initial suggestions
- When child is about to go to theatre a song to explain the process
- When measuring vital signs song to explain red light is safe
- When fluids are being released through a cannula
- Especially useful in A+E
- Moving after surgery
Portability
The book should be small enough to fit into a nurses pocket and could perhaps be on a ring-binder so that individual songs could be taken out. It could be accompanied by a CD with MP3’s, MPEG’s and PDF’s so that nurses can print off individual songs, learn songs on ipods, watch videos of rhythm games etc.
If you have any further suggestions then please leave a comment below or email me at john.browne@kcl.ac.uk
