Culture-derived strategies of a paediatric home-care nursing specialty team

This is an ethnographic study of one paediatric home-care nursing specialty team that cares for children and their families affected by perinatal human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease. Observations made by the investigator as part of a larger study suggested that the intricacy and breadth of nursing knowledge and actions that were actually used far exceeded what the standard documentation recorded. Spradley's Developmental Research Sequence, combining methods of participant observation and interviewing, was used to answer the question: What nursing strategies are used in managing the health needs of HIV-exposed infants in a home-care programme? Thematic analyses revealed that the visit process had four essential elements, as perceived and lived by the nurses: the pursuit; the connection; the work; and the disengagement. This full scope of nursing strategies for assisting and empowering these families remains largely invisible, limited to verbal transmission to family caregivers and among nurses. It needs to be documented, claimed and further studied by nursing.