[Social representations of the care given to the elderly by health professionals in a nursing home]. / Representaciones sociales del cuidado del anciano en trabajadores de salud en un ancianato.

This study aimed at identifying the social representations of the care given to the elderly by caregivers in a nursing home. Fifteen caregivers aged 28 to 32 years old who worked in a nursing home in the city of Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil were subjects for this work and the Theory of Social Representations was used as reference. Data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews and analyzed by content analysis, which enabled the elaboration of categories, thus facilitating comprehension. Among such categories are: informal education, formal education, satisfaction, sadness, modes of confrontation and denegation.

[Family care for elderly patients with cerebrovascular accident sequelae]. / O cuidado familiar ao idoso com seqüela de acidente vascular cerebral.

This study had as objectives to identify the nature of the family care given to the elderly with sequels of Cerebral Vascular Accident (AVC); to understand its major problems; and to discuss its meaning from the caregiver's vision. It was developed through a qualitative/descriptive methodology. The subjects, five caregivers of elderly with sequels of Cerebral Vascular Accident, were interviewed at their homes. Semi-structured interviews and the projective technique (story drawing with a theme proposed by Trinca) were used. The data analysis was done through thematic analysis (the first phase of the Enunciation Analysis recommended by d'Unrug, in Bardin, 1994) which rose the following categories: "nature of the family care"; "social-economic changes of the caregiver"; "emotional and physical burnout of the caregiver"; and "the meaning of the family care". The results allowed a characterization of the caregivers group and the identification of total care to the elderly.

[How nurses evaluate home nursing and family caregivers]. / Como os enfermeiros avaliam o cuidado/cuidador familiar.

The aim of this study was to assess the way used by nurses for evaluate the family care and the caregiver. The method used was a quali-quantitative one. A semi-structure interview was the instrument chosen to collect data. It was applied to 20 (twenty) nurses from a University Hospital within the months of April and May, 1996. Data analysis was based on the Bardin's Content Analysis Technique (1994). The results demonstrated that nurses are not systematic in evaluating family care and the caregiver, but they use their intuition, based on momentaneous decisions. This reveal a difficulty of integration between the formal and the informal care caused by lack of interaction or effective valorization of the family care process.