Caregivers during prolonged hospital stays in pediatrics: care strategies and public policies.

This research analyzed the effects of the care process on caregivers during long-term hospitalizations in a pediatric unit of an university hospital in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Thematic oral history interviews were used, supported by the theoretical concept of life narratives. The results were evaluated university using a hermeneutic-dialectical approach, synthesized into the following analytical categories: Child and Adolescent Illness and Changes in the Life Dynamics of Caregivers and Family; Impacts of Prolonged Hospitalizations on Family Income; The Relational Dimension of Care; Leisure and Self-Care for Living and Caring. The theoretical-analytical categories were multiple family arrangements; racial and sexual division of labor; decolonial feminism; care as a social right; and health care from a broader perspective. Women are the primary caregivers of patients with prolonged hospital stays in pediatrics, and they often abandon their own plans to live for the sake of their dependents. They seek survival strategies and institutional responses. The current National Care Policy (Brazil, 2024), along with other policies and interlinked with the struggle for a more just society, can be considered a way to seek recognition of the dignity of these caregivers.