[Teamwork and negotiation with family in pediatrics]

Analyze the negotiation and interaction process within nurses' practice with mothers of hospitalized children in pediatric unit from the teamwork perspective.

A qualitative approach was used in this study, based on the Grounded Theory from the symbolic interaction perspective. The study included 12 nurses of the pediatric unit and 18 mothers who stayed in the hospital with their hospitalized children. The number of participants was defined according to data saturation. Participant observation and semi-structured interviews were chosen as data collection techniques and it was analyzed using the program NVivo8.

From the analysis performed, the central category identified was «weaknesses in the negotiation process», within the interactions between nurses and mothers. Nurses revealed difficulties in the communication process, they did not include roles definition with mothers in order to establish their participation in the care process and a power imbalance was also evidenced.

Within the studied settings, an important lack of collaborative work with hospitalized children's mothers was observed. The weaknesses in the negotiation process and specifically the difficulties found in communication; the lack of roles and tasks clarification and the perceived power imbalance regarding relationships, prevent mothers involvement in their children care process, considered a basic component to achieve a greater mother implication, better results in terms of health and a lower impact of hospitalization in the children.