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Chronic illness in children is a major source of stress and potential distress for the whole family. The disease is considered by many authors as chronic due to the length and complexity of the treatment and recovery period, danger to life or injury, a high probability of relapse (Rehm, 2013). When a child has a chronic disease, the severity of the experiences of all family members about the diagnosis is compounded by the numerous challenges that every family faces when interacting with the disease. Studies of families that had a child with chronic illness revealed universal problems directly affecting family functioning. Situation is worsened by lack of social, moral, and psychological support to these families. Parents are more often the primary caregivers for children with chronic illness, and so these people need an optimal professional support from health care professionals to maintain the care for their children and themselves. Because nurses take an intermediate role between a family and a doctor, they are the ones who will have a responsibility to empower parents (Rehm, 2013).
There are numerous difficulties that need to be addresses when working with parents of children with a chronic condition (CCC). Emotional difficulties are the biggest concerns. They may occur in parent-child relationship, conjugal relationship, or in relations with the extended family. Rehm found that parents who took care for CCC had a higher level of stress, worry, fear, anxiety, and felt more overwhelmed. All this has its impact on relationships the caregiver and the child, as well the whole family, and community (Rehm, 2013). One of the main nurses role when working with a family is psychological assistance to reduce family stress and preven...

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...tional support to parents, develop their positive self-image, and helps parents explore the situation so that they can not only understand, but also predict the development within the specifics of the disease and its course. Helping parents build interaction with a child and provide him or her with emotional support in order to improve a child’s emotional state will also improve quality and safe care in the clinical practice.
To summarize, nurses should support parents in developing coping strategies to enable them analyze the difficulties, identify constraints, and seek new ways out of difficult situation. It is also important for nurses to assist parents of a CCC in improving or finding new ways to communicate with health care providers. Nursing education of parents will support the development of internal independence and ability to make decisions responsibly.