[Actions of physicians, nurses, parents and friends in relationship with young diabetic patients]

The purpose of this study was to use young diabetics descriptions of their illness, treatment and care to explain the actions of physicians, nurses, parents and friends relationship with diabetics'. The empirical data were collected by interviewing 51 diabetics of age 13-17-years. The data were processed by the method of continuous comparative analysis. The young diabetics described the actions of physicians as motivating, authoritarian, negligent and routine. By motivating they meant that, the doctors and young diabetics acted together, discussing the treatment and care and planning it together, whereas the routine and authoritarian aspects of their action referred to things that the doctors didn't discuss with the patient, and care that wasn't individual. The nurses' were described as taking notice of the young diabetics as individuals, but their actions were or intended to comply with the doctors' instructions. The individual aspect consisted of planning the care together and trying to combine it with the young persons's life. The actions of the parents were described as motivating, involving acceptance and disciplined control. Their motivating action consisted of support and a natural interest in young diabetics's life and not only in the disease. The parents who accepted the young diabetics didn't try to influence them. They accepted that the people would not necessarily care for themselves. Their disciplined control consisted of a lot of questions about care and attempts to oblige the young diabetics to care for themselves better than they do. The young diabetics described their interaction with friends, in terms of their silent support, their friends dominating their lives or their friends having no meaning for their self care. When their friends dominated their lives, the young diabetics lived according to their friends' habit, in which case the care didn't fit in with the young diabetics' life style. The silent support of the friends was typical in that the friends reminded the young diabetics of their care and tried to change their own habits to fit the young diabetics' lives. Friends had no meaning for those young diabetics for whom the care was a natural part of their lives.