Vulnerability of Children with Special Health Needs: implications for nursing

Abstract

The objective of the study was to describe and analyze the social and clinical profile of Children with  Special Health Needs hospitalized in the pediatric  wards of a maternal-infant hospital in the Federal District. This is a cross-sectional, quantitative survey  carried out with 120 children and their family  members/main caregivers. A structured questionnaire  with 26 items was used, which later went through a  descriptive and inferential analysis of the data. The  results point to the mother as the main family  member/caregiver (92.5%), with a medium level of  education (58.3%). The children were mostly male  (63%), with congenital malformations, deformities,  and chromosomal anomalies (29.1%). There was a  positive correlation between family/caregiver  education and need for hospitalization in the  Intensive Care Unit (P-Value<0.01) and the number of  hospitalizations in the last 12 months with  technological care demands (P-Value<0.01). Thus, the  social vulnerability of families and the need for health  education strategies focused on the demands of technological care were also identified.