Promoção da saúde mental dos pais/cuidadores em contexto de doença na criança hospitalizada

: intervenção do enfermeiro especialista

Abstract

It is common knowledge, nowadays, that the hospitalization of a child, whatever thereason may be, is one of the stressful factors with the potential to interfere with physical and emotional health of the family, causing negative feelings. Viewing the family as a dynamic system, with an intricate functioning and multiple individual needs, in particular in relation to health-illness situations, it is of great importance the assistance of the specialist nurse within the management of those feelings and promotion of the psychological well-being of the family, namely that of the child’sparents and caregivers. Based upon the assumptions outlined above, the promotion of health has become relevant in which concerns nurse care to the child and family and within the professional responsibility of the Infant The drafting of this report, arising within the Masters Nursing Program in the Infantand Paediatric Health Specialisation area, in the Institute of Health Sciences of Catholic University of Lisbon, using an analytical, descriptive and reflexive methodology, describes the path to acquire and develop personal and professional skills as a future Specialist Nurse, particularly related to the role of specialized nursing on promoting mental health of parents/caregivers of children needing hospitalization. Moyra Allen’s McGill Model of Nursing was adopted as the guiding conceptual framework for the healthcare provision, as it describes the role of nurses in the promotion of family health within a health/illness context. A scoping review was also conducted in order to determine the impact on parents and caregivers’ mental healthin the context of the child’s hospitalization, so that the most proper interventions would be applied. The internship was developed in three distinctive care provision environments: in a neonatology unit, in a paediatric in-patient service and in a paediatric emergency service. The cross-sectional aim to all internship contexts was to “develop infant and paediatric health specialist nurse skills within the promotion of mental health of parents/caregivers of the child needing hospitalization”. More specific objectives were defined afterwards, considering the situation diagnosis for each environment. Coming to the end of this path, it has become obvious that promoting mental health, in order to achieve the psychological well-being of parents and caregivers, requires the promotion and reinforcement of the family system inner resources and those of each of its members and, consequently, contributing to the improvement of willingness for caregiving to the child, being the ultimate purpose to improve his’ or hers’ disease life experience. Communication was defined as the basic strategy of nursing action, whichwill lead to a safety and confidence-building relationship.

Date of Award	12 May 2021
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Margarida Lourenço (Supervisor)