Helping health care assistants develop skills in caring for sick children.

At the UK Association of Chief Children’s Nurses (ACCN) annual educational symposium which was held in the Italian city of Florence in September 2013, the future direction of the education of children’s and young people’s nurses was debated. The University of Florence and the Meyer Children Hospital through the good offices of Professor Filippo Festini, a board member of ICPN, acted as hosts for the symposium. The city of Florence was a poignant venue for the meeting, being the birthplace of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, who was born there in 1820. The ACCN annual symposium brings together child health academics and senior children’s nursing managers from across the UK, but on this occasion colleagues from across Italy were also invited. A principal objective of these annual symposiums is to ensure that children’s and young people’s nurses of the future have the right skill set for future practice.