Prevenção e minimização do stress da criança e família durante a prestação de cuidados de saúde

Abstract

Providing health-care usually involves a great deal of stress for both child and family. Invasive and potentially painful procedures stand as one of the most stressful experiences for the child and the family in need of health-care. The stress experienced during health-care relates to comfort needs that can be experienced on different contexts. When those needs are satisfied, stress is minimized and it’s harmful consequences can be prevented. The nurse who is a specialist in children’s health and paediatrics, due to the knowledge and abilities that characterize him, is more able to early diagnose the comfort needs of the child and family when in potentially stressful health-care situations. Early diagnosing allows this specialized nurse to plan and implement interventions that will lead to the satisfaction of those needs and, by achieving so, to the prevention and minimization of the stress related to healthcare situations. This report is subjected to the theme of “Preventing and minimizing the stress of the child and family during healthcare”, and intends to show the interventions developed with the general goal of contributing to the child and family’s stress prevention and minimization during such care. Those interventions were planned according to comfort needs identified as stress aggravating, from which stood out pain management and relief strategies, promoting play activities and acknowledging the parents presence during care giving. The interventions developed resulted in the parents satisfaction related to the care provided, which stands as very important in the evaluation of nursing care. On the other hand, because the carried out interventions prepare both child and family to, by experiencing lower levels of stress, cope with similar situations in the future, it can be said that promoting comfort in its different contexts will produce gains in health which is, after all, the main goal of nursing care.

Date of Award	2011
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Margarida Lourenço (Supervisor)