Poster Presentation

Sunday, November 4, 2007
10:30 AM - 11:45 AM

Sunday, November 4, 2007
1:30 PM - 2:45 PM
This presentation is part of : Clinical Posters
Nursing and Families of Children with Nephrotic Syndrome: New Elements and Horizons to Take Care
Semiramis M. M. Rocha, PhD, Department of Maternal-Child and Public Health - WHO Collaborating Centre for the Development of Nursing Research, University of São Paulo at Ribeirão Preto College of Nursing, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil and Rosa L. R. Ribeiro, PhD, Nursing Department, Federal University of Mato Grosso, Cuiabá, Brazil.
Learning Objective #1: know a qualitative research with families of children with Nephrotic Syndrome, using hermeneutics as a theoretical-methodological reference framework
Learning Objective #2: understand the care of Brazilian children with Nephrotic Syndrome, with focus on the family

This study aims to understand the care of children with Nephrotic Syndrome, to identify new elements and horizons to reconstruct the nursing care, focalizing to the family. A qualitative study was realized, using hermeneutics according to Gadamer and Ricouer as a theoretical-methodological reference framework. Participants: families of children with Nephrotic Syndrome who attended the Pediatric Nephrology Service in, Brazil. Data were collected by means of: the families’ nursing records, the construction of the genogram and ecomap, documentary analysis and talks with the families. 42 subjects participated, including six families and four health team members. The results were organized in three themes: 1. Presentation of the families. They are present by means of their projects, characters and context. They share a history of lost, distance from one’s origins, death of important persons, separations, presumed fatherhood and other health problems, besides the child’s disease. 2. The trajectory of the child’s disease in the family. This topic presents the family’s experiences since the start of the disease, their efforts to overcome financial difficulties, changes in family life, the fear of relapses, the search for explanations for their occurrence and the family’s pride when they get over the worst of it; 3. Care for the nephrotic child. It reveals the viewpoints of caregivers, family members and health professionals, as well as possible care on the basis of family arrangements. The health team also exposes its dilemmas and limits in facing the child’s care and approaching the family. Family and team members express the need for mutual interaction to construct the product of this broad dialogue, that is, care, which should exclude neither technical-scientific knowledge nor the families’ perspective. What care is concerned, the exercise of formative assessment proposed by Ayres is recommended.