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Bronchiolitis is a major cause of children's admission to hospital. The study aim was to describe the experiences of parents who had, or nurses who cared for, a child admitted to hospital for severe bronchiolitis requiring oxygen therapy. A descriptive phenomenological approach was used to interview 12 mothers and 12 nurses. The findings were clustered into three domains: fear, parent-child interaction and technical caring. The mothers found the experience to be extremely frightening, based on their fear that their child could die. This was compounded by their lack of knowledge and understanding about what was happening and their inability to fulfil their mothering role. Although nurses recognised that parents were anxious, they did not seem to appreciate fully the depth of fear and emotion that mothers were experiencing and tended to describe procedural aspects of their role. The mothers' relationship with their child was focused upon physical contact and the desire to comfort their child. Their ability to do so was significantly impacted upon by the method of oxygen delivery to their child. For nurses, although they recognised the psychosocial dimension, their emphasis was on health and safety aspects of oxygen therapy, both for the child and themselves., (© The Author(s) 2013.)

There has been no research that has investigated the psychosocial impact on children whose parents have undergone a lung transplant. The aim of this qualitative study was to describe children's concerns and understandings of their parent's transplant surgery. Artwork was used as a creative medium to enable children to portray their experiences in a safe, non-threatening environment. This was used as a visual primer for follow-up interviews. All children expressed similar and complementary views about uncertainty and anxiety, separation, disruption to family life, their desire for normality, and the importance of social support. Differences were evident in the way that some children managed well by adapting to the changing situations, whereas others tended towards avoidance. The findings provide several themes that may be used as a framework for family support and counselling by nurses, social workers, and other healthcare professionals who are caring for patients and their families during the transplant process., (© The Author(s) 2012.)