Within the web: the family–practitioner relationship in the context of chronic childhood illness

• Published in: Journal of child health care Vol. 10; no. 4; pp. 309 - 325
• Main Authors: Dickinson, Annette R., Smythe, Elizabeth, Spence, Deb
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi SAGE Publications 01.12.2006
• Subjects: Adaptation, Psychological; Adult; Attitude of Health Personnel; Attitude to Health; Child; Chronic Disease - psychology; Cooperative Behavior; Existentialism - psychology; Family - psychology; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Health Services Needs and Demand; Humans; Life Change Events; Negotiating - psychology; New Zealand; Nursing; Nursing Methodology Research; Pediatric Nursing; Pediatrics; Philosophy, Medical; Philosophy, Nursing; Professional-Family Relations; Psychology, Child; Social Support; Surveys and Questionnaires; New Zealand; families; family-practitioner relationship; children; chronic illness
• ISSN: 1367-4935; 1741-2889
• DOI: 10.1177/1367493506067883

This hermeneutic phenomenological study explores the relationship between health professionals and families who have a child with a chronic illness. Study participants included 10 family groups who had a child with a chronic illness and 12 practitioners from the disciplines of nursing, medicine, dietetics, physiotherapy and speech therapy. Data were collected by narrative audiotaped interviewing. The results of this study revealed that chronic childhood illness ‘throws' families and practitioners together into a web of relationships, which must work for the sake of the child. However, children are usually excluded from the relationship. To understand and manage the child's illness, practitioners and families ‘go around’ and act ‘in-between’ relationships. While the quality of the relationship from the family perspective is not essential, relationships are more successful when practitioners recognize the uniqueness of each family web. The nature of the relationship is often simple, yet it coexists with complexity.