Barbara Evans
I qualified as a nursery nurse (NNEB) in 1981.
During my training I had placements in both a social services
family centre and a reception class at infants. Over the last 25 I
have gained experience in variety of settings. Starting as a nanny
for twin boys I then got my first role as a nursery nurse in
Children’s Out Patients at the Leicester Royal Infirmary. This role
included working with children with special needs, oncology and the
children’s psychology service. This was the start of my career
within health. In between having my own 2 children I worked in
nurseries, playgroups and did some childminding before becoming one
of the first Community nursery nurses in Leicestershire nearly 13
years ago. In order to update my skills I completed the Advanced
Diploma in childcare and Education in 2000 and completed the
introductory High/scope training in 2003.
During the early days within the HV teams
there was no clear guidance on what was expected of a nursery
nurse. Key roles emerged in assessing child development, supporting
Health Visitors in delivering behaviour management support and many
other aspects of the child health programme. However, due to the
needs of the area it soon became clear that a play programme of
care would help in supporting parenting strategies to enable
children to meet their full potential. As the only nursery nurse at
the time I was instrumental in establishing this ‘one to one’
package of play-based care. There are now 7 CNN’s in the area all
implementing the play programme and across Leicestershire a total
of 60 CNN’s many of whom offer the programme in some form.
Due to difficulties in the early days I was
also involved in policies and protocols relating to Community
Nursery Nurses within Leicestershire and then had to opportunity to
be involved with the Amicus-CPHVA ‘Think tank’ that produced the
CNN code of voluntary conduct and professional guidelines. This
became the CNN forum of which I am currently chair.
