Kicking Eeyore into touch: 'Living-strong', 'nursing-strong' and being appreciative and solution-focused

The potential benefits of moving away from a problem/needs oriented approach to a solution-focused, appreciative way of working with children and their families are explored in this paper. It aims to acknowledge and celebrate the expertise of children and their families and the nurses who care for and with them. I draw on both Appreciative Inquiry - a dynamic, dialogic framework for appreciative thinking with people about situations and settings - and Solution-Focused Nursing as means of underpinning my proposal to further shift the way that children's nurses think and work with children and their families. I argue that a paradigm shift is needed in which children's nurses celebrate and focus on the things that are working well within families and genuinely consider the families' expertise and knowledge. This requires us to be attuned to the diverse ways of experiencing things and multiple ways in which nurses can care with families. It requires us to carefully consider not only what we say but how we say it and the impact that our dialogue with children has on them. Equally it requires children's nurses to acknowledge and celebrate what they do well and embrace and engage with the energy and creativity that underpins strong, resourceful, innovative and expert practice. I propose a manifesto for children's nurses that acknowledges these attributes and encourages us to 'think solutions', to be nurses that children will remember who help children and families to live well and live-strong with their illness.