This is a qualitative study that aimed to describe the care network of children with special health care needs in different levels of the health care system, during the follow-up after discharge. The data were produced through the development of the dynamics of creativity and sensitivity, the speaking map and the creative and sensitive method, involving five children's families between 2009 and 2011. The caregivers' discourse pointed out that these children's care network comprises the institutional and familial dimensions. The first showed to be broad and diverse but scattered, comprising various health and education professionals. The second consists of members of the close female relatives, such as mothers and grandmothers, showing an exclusively familial care. The expansion and consolidation of multiprofessional care networks is recommended to facilitate the access to health care and quality of life for these children and their family caregivers.
Child health; Pediatric nursing; Family; Caregivers
