Designing an adolescent safeguarding curriculum framework for preregistration nurse education programmes

Adolescence is a crucial period of transition during which young people are exposed to a range of safeguarding risks in the wider social context. However, it has been identified that the need to safeguard adolescents is less well recognised than the need to safeguard children. Furthermore, there is evidence that child development education provided as part of preregistration nurse education programmes tends to neglect adolescent development. Therefore, there is a need to adopt a life-course approach – which focuses on all stages of child development, including adolescence – and to review child development education to support future nurses in their role in safeguarding young people in practice. This article proposes a curriculum framework for adolescent safeguarding education, outlining a structure to support nurse educators when designing or reviewing preregistration nurse education programmes.