This study was aimed at understanding the perceptions of families of children who live with chronic conditions concerning the components of their vulnerability situation and relating them with Socio-Ecological Theory. This is a qualitative, descriptive and exploratory study, involving nine families of children living with chronic conditions, who were admitted to a teaching hospital in the city of Porto Alegre, located in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, using creativity and sensitivity dynamics and content analysis. Three categories emerged and the second of them, the vulnerability of programs and their insertion into the mesosystem of healthcare institutions, is explored herein. The institutional or programmatic component of vulnerability connects the individual and the social components, involving the monitoring of prevention and care programs. It can be noted that there is a link between the ecological environment systems and the components of vulnerability situations which, when identified, allows for the implementation of healthcare actions directed at children and their families.
Vulnerability; Family; Pediatric nursing