Articles - Revista Brasileira de Enfermagem

ABSTRACT

Objective:

to characterize families and health status of the elderly in the Family Health Strategy and to verify the association of family composition with sociodemographic characteristics and health of the elderly.

Method:

population-based study with 215 families and 266 elderly, linked to the Family Health Strategy from a city of Rio Grande do Sul state.

Results:

there was predominance of nuclear family composition, considered as the main source of informal support, families of female elderly (62.6%) and cardiovascular complication. The nuclear structure was signifi cantly associated with female gender (PR = 0.77; p = 0.025) and smoking (PR = 1.35; p = 0.009).

Conclusion:

the results reinforce the need to maintain a network of formal and informal support to the elderly and their families to preserve the independence or to postpone the decline in functional capacity.

ABSTRACT

Objective:

to analyze similarities and dissimilarities in the meanings assigned to health care by long-lived elders and nursing professionals in a healthcare setting.

Method:

ethnographic qualitative research, based on the Spradley-McCurdy method and the interpretive anthropology of Geertz and Kleinman. The sample consisted of 20 key informants. Data were collected through participatory observation and ethnographic interviews from March to October 2013 and analyzed in domains, taxonomies and cultural themes.

Results:

Six domains and cultural taxonomies emerged and revealed reasons, attributes, and resources in providing care in relationship to long-lived elders and nursing professionals; fi nally, the following cultural theme emerged: the real to the ideal – the health (un)care of long-lived elders.

Conclusion:

The study showed the distance between the desired and actual health care provided to aged people in the scenario studied.

ABSTRACT

Objective:

to dimension spaces and people that act on playing of children with cancer in outpatient treatment.

Method:

qualitative research developed with the creative sensitive method. A total of twenty two family members of seven children with cancer in outpatient treatment at a public hospital in Rio de Janeiro participated of this research. Data were generated in the family members’ homes, from September 2011 to May 2012.

Results:

after the diagnosis of childhood cancer, there was a change of scene and in the people who interact and play with children. Hospital has a central place for it, since children discover the pleasure of playing in this setting.

Conclusion:

the health care professional, especially nurses, who work on hospital care needs, should develop the ability of facilitate playing and therefore, enable care that promotes childhood development.

ABSTRACT

Objective:

to analyze conceptions of nurses on child health surveillance in family health units.

Method:

a qualitative study with thematic analysis of the data, based on the paradigm of Health Surveillance. Interviews were conducted with 13 nurses in a countryside city in the state of Sao Paulo.

Results:

nurses conceived child health surveillance as an active monitoring, which should be comprehensive, identifying risks/vulnerabilities, through multidisciplinary and intersectoral actions that are dependent on maternal involvement. We found partial development of these assumptions in practice, due to diffi culties such as lack of maternal involvement in the proposed actions, lack of time for discussion and adoption of measures in the units and disarticulation between levels and sectors of the city.

Conclusion:

a greater political and technical investment is needed to ensure the adoption of this model in different sectors and levels of care of the city.

ABSTRACT

A reflection articleabout the contribution of Master’s Degree Programs in Advanced Practice Nursing and the Universal Health Coverage and the Universal Health Access, topicsthat have been discussed by the Pan American Health Organization, and which the Brazilian Nursingrequires not just appropriate, but further studyto reflect in order to define directions for our profession.

ABSTRACT

Objective:

to identify the attributes of the “family insufficiency” concept of the aged in the literature.

Method:

critical literature analysis.

Results:

family insufficiency is characterized as a complex process of psychosocial interaction, founded mainly on low social support of the aged and impaired family ties. Its antecedents are found in contemporary transformations within the family system, intergenerational conflicts, impaired family relationships and social vulnerability of the family. The consequences of family insufficiency include social vulnerability of the aged, decline of psychological and functional health, lower quality of life and unsuccessful aging. An original theoretical proposal was elaborated for the concept of family insufficiency in the elderly, with the identification of its attributes, antecedents and consequences.

Conclusion:

the findings of this study constitute a theoretical advancement in the Family Insufficiency Syndrome in elderly people and provide data for future field research in developing the concept.