On 16th April 2019, the fourth Building Children’s Nursing conference opened in Cape Town, welcoming 111 colleagues from 12 countries. Together we affirmed our commitment to truly engaging with evidence-based research to shape our practice, and to standing together as a community of excellent, African children’s nurses – clinicians, educators, students and researchers. One year on, I am delighted to share with you what I hope will be a helpful resource for you in your work to improve the nursing care of children in Africa.

The Regul8 framework is the fruit of more than ten years of work that I have carried out as a grateful member of this community. It has been built around a shared commitment to articulate the nature of the work of children’s nurses. The Regul8 framework is designed to comprehensively describe the major influences on regulatory function and provides an intentionally Afrocentric guide to children’s nursing care planning. Originally known to students and colleagues as the Seven Steps, and then the Seven (Plus One) Steps, the impetus for the work was to align emerging understandings and research outcomes with children’s nursing practice.

I know that many of you already know and use elements of the ‘seven steps’ in your education activities and ward practice. It has been a pleasure to be able to produce a professionally designed set of resources with the generous support of the ELMA Foundation. In the process I have also refined and updated the domains and provided comprehensive summaries of the underpinning evidence. I hope that you will be able to update your local use accordingly.

Two resources have been created as freely available Open Educational Resources: a poster and an evidence summary document. Both can be downloaded on OpenUCT

I hope that you will find these resources helpful.

Best regards,
Minette Coetzee PhD RN
Director, Child Nurse Practice Development Initiative