OBJECTIVES: To understand the meaning of maternal experience in the health-illness transition of a child with congenital heart disease, to identify maternal behaviors during this experience, and to propose a model of maternal transitional care guided by the Roy's adaptation nursing theory. METHODS: A qualitative research design was used to conduct this study. Data were collected through semi-structured interview with 10 mothers who stayed with their children in the postoperative period of cardiac surgery in a pediatric hospital. RESULTS: Bardin's (1991) content analysis approach led to the identification of six units of context and eleven units of meaning regarding maternal personal and family experience during the health-illness transition of a child with congenital heart disease. CONCLUSIONS: Understanding the meaning of maternal experience in the health-illness transition of a child, nurses can mobilize resources and apply the model of maternal transitional care, which may be useful in helping mothers to deal with and adapt to the new situation of health-illness transition of a child with congenital heart disease.
Nursing care; Child care; Heart defects, congenital; Postoperative care; Pediatric nursing
