Supporting self-care of chronically ill children

Abstract

Children have limited knowledge about their health and are mostly dependent on their families and other personnel for support. The goals of the thesis are to identify the needs of chronically ill children and assist them on how they can support themselves; and to provide basic guidelines to families and nurses to support the self-care of chronically ill children. The thesis was written using literature review method of research. The inductive approach of content analysis was used to analyze the data in an attempt to answer the research questions; What functional support do chronically ill children need from nurses and their families? How can the self-care of chronically ill children be promoted? The results showed that support from the nurses, family, and other people was viewed as very important to children with chronic illness. Support, shared-management, and self-care were three concepts that came up from the results. In conclusion, self-care was seen as a continuous process led by the nurse, but the family assumed many responsibilities. Self-believe and motivation was seen to be a key to successful self-care.