Care for technology dependent children and their relationship with the health care systems

Abstract

Objective: to understand the experience of care delivery to technology dependent children based on the mothers’ experience. Method: exploratory study with qualitative approach, based on the theoretical framework of medical anthropology and the narrative method. Twelve mothers participated and, as the technique to obtain the narratives, open interviews were held at the participants’ homes. Results: the narratives were organized into three thematic categories: the family system, identifying the care forms, the association between popular and scientific knowledge and the participation of the social network; the professional system, which discusses the relations between professionals and family, the hegemony of the biomedical model and the role of nursing; and the popular system, presenting popular care practices like spirituality and religiosity. Conclusion: the study provided support for a health care project that takes into account the families’ moral and symbolic values and beliefs in view of the illness of a technology-dependent child. The results found can contribute towards changes in the health work process, so that its foundation is guided not only by the biomedical model, allowing the integration of the sociocultural dimensions into the health care movement.