OBJECTIVE: Understand how the health problems of a child are solved in the perspective of parents and caregivers, based on the attributes of primary health care. METHODS: Qualitative study using a hermeneutic-dialectic approach involving 16 caregivers of children younger than one year old, assisted at an emergency unit. RESULTS: Lack of access, absence of bonding and coordination, and comprehensive care deprivation contribute to the lack of resolvability, leading to a search for alternatives to solve the health problems of children. CONCLUSION: As observed, primary health care services demonstrate no problem-solving capacity in children's health problems, as the essential attributes for the effectiveness of such care were not present.
Child health; Primary care nursing; Pediatric nursing; Problem solving; Nursing care; Caregivers