HEALTH EDUCATION IN THE WAITING ROOM: MOTHERS’ EXPECTATIONS IN THE FACE OF THEIR CHILD`S CHRONIC CONDITION

The study aimed to investigate the expectations of mothers participating in a Waiting Room group, in the face of their child’s chronic condition. It is exploratory, descriptive, qualitative research, undertaken between April and May 2011 with 12 mothers of hospitalized children/adolescents. The data, collected through semi-structured interviews, resulted in the categories: Adapting to the child’s chronic condition; Family unit in the face of the child’s chronic condition; Chronic condition: altering routines in the family context; Waiting Room: exchange of experiences and nursing care. It was evidenced that the basis for facing the child’s chronic condition, so as to overcome difficulties, is in the family unit. Thus, it is understood that health education, carried out in centers of connivance and leisure, contributes to improvement of quality of life of families of persons with a chronic condition.