How clinical supervision can improve hospice care for children.

Since clinical supervision was introduced into nursing in 1993, it has had a poor uptake, despite evidence of its benefits. This article describes how East Anglia's Children's Hospices implemented a form of clinical supervision called practice supervision throughout its services. Despite initial staff concerns about the implementation, it has been successful and most staff now participate in practice supervision, either as supervisors or supervisees.

The benefits of using the Neonatal Behavioural Assessment Scale in health visiting practice.

Health visitors have a key role to play in the government's public health strategy with its emphasis on early identification of vulnerable children. This paper raises the profile of infant mental health as a public health priority and outlines the vital importance of a loving early relationship between an infant and primary caregiver for a child's healthy development. It describes the Neonatal Behavioural Assessment Scale (NBAS) and the appropriateness of its use by health visitors. This tool has been underused in the UK, but is being used in clinical practice and research in many other countries, such as the USA. It can add value to the assessments already being carried out by health visitors and can contribute to partnership working with parents as together they observe how the infant interacts with and organises his/her world. The NBAS enables health visitors to demonstrate to parents an infant's strengths and abilities, together with any needs for extra care giving. This assessment has been shown to improve developmental outcomes by enhancing the infant-caregiver relationship, and provides health visitors with the opportunity to consolidate their relationship of trust with families.