UN experts present research into child health at conference in Denmark

​The University of Northampton’s Dr Tracey Redwood, Senior Lecturer in Children’s Nursing and Dr Sarah Neill , Associate Professor in Children’s Nursing, recently attended the 12th International Family Nursing Conference in Odense, Denmark.

Dr Tracey Redwood presented ‘Early Help in Early Years: Developing a Universal Assessment Tool’ under the Cutting Edge Methods in Family Research abstract session.

She highlighted the importance of having a Universal Assessment Tool to identify and assist families in need. The research project was conducted within the Institute of Health and Wellbeing and commissioned by Northamptonshire Children and Young People’s Partnership Board at Northamptonshire County Council. Five recommendations were posed including the necessity to develop the tool within a digital format to assist all children within Northamptonshire.

Dr Sarah Neill presented ‘Defining ‘Family’ when a Child is Acutely Ill at Home’ under the Family Research with Infants and Children session. Sarah presented a cross-study analysis of definitions of family from three projects exploring family experiences of acute childhood illness. Her findings show that families are most often defined as the nuclear family of parents and dependent children when children are ill, even when active extended family networks were described. These findings reflect social expectations that these common episodes of illness will be managed within the nuclear family without ‘bothering’ anyone else.

The University of Northampton is committed to delivering high-impact positive change. One of the Institution’s four ‘Changemaker Challenges’ aims to make Northamptonshire the leading county in the UK for Health and Wellbeing.

If you would like to find out more about Tracey and Sarah’s research, Tracey can be contacted on: tracey.redwood@northampton.ac.uk, @RedwoodTracey or ResearchGate Tracey Redwood, and Sarah on: sarah.neill@northampton.ac.uk, @SarahNeill7 or ResearchGate Sarah Jane Neill.