[Hospitalized child: care sharing between mother and nursing]

This research aimed to verify at what moment, in what kinds of care and in what way mothers are included in care to the hospitalized child and to verify how care is negotiated between nursing team and mothers. The field research was carried out through participant observation of everyday care at a pediatric hospital unit, as well as interviews with mothers and the nursing team. The inclusion of the mother in care has taken place in a subtle way. The mother has taken on procedures that had been part of nursing competence before, concentrating information on the therapeutic process. The lack of a collective therapeutic project from the perspective of family-centered care is one of the obstacles to the involvement of mothers in care. Results demonstrate that the relation between mothers and the nursing team reveal to be complex and influenced by the exercise of power, which results in the need to construct shared care.