This is a qualitative study that aimed to better understand the everyday life of Brazilian adolescents with chronic disease. Data was collected between March and June of 2009 in the Pediatric In-Patient and Outpatient Units at the University Hospital of the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil, involving eleven adolescent patients with chronic disease. Symbolic Interactionism was used as a theoretical reference and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. Collective Subject Discourse was used to analyse the data, from which the following categories emerged: the school routine, which shows how the schooling process is changed, with the importance of participating in school and the hospital institution promoting the continuation of their education; the feeding routine, which points out dietary restrictions and the need for nutritional education as something that interferes with social relationships, experienced with grief; and school nourishment, which showed how difficult it is for these adolescents to follow their prescribed diet in this environment
Adolescent; Chronic disease; Nursing
