Shooting for the Stars – Towards Excellence in Paediatric Nursing Care 

Introduction 
In November 1996, Starship Children’s Hospital will be five!  As with any five year old this marks the end of a period of extremely rapid growth, transition through developmental milestones and the learning of new knowledge and skills.  As the nursing service at Starship reflects on the last five years we remember back to our infancy and our delivery out of Princess Mary Hospital.  Starship nursing today owes much to excellent paediatric nurses of Princess Mary Hospital who for many years delivered care within an environment which was not child friendly, and had definitely passed its “Best Used by” date.  These nurses not only delivered care within a less than ideal environment, but lobbied along with others for the development of a child friendly, child and family focused health care facility which could provide specialist paediatric services not only to the children of Auckland but also to the children and families of New Zealand and the South Pacific.