PhD project: Optimizing health care services for families who have a child with complex health care needs
Illustrative picture from Carina Nygård
Optimizing nursing services to promote well-being in families who have children with complex care needs, at home
Providing care and support for the emerging population of children with complex care needs and their families is a crucial aspect of primary nursing care. Children's complex care needs refer to multidimensional health and social care needs in the presence of a recognized medical condition or where there is no unifying diagnosis.
The recent shift towards homecare, relying on parents as the primary caregiver has significantly impacted the daily lives of these families.
As the largest professional group in the healthcare force, nurses are in an ideal position to provide comprehensive and integrated family-centered care tailored to the whole family. However, health care structures in Norway are not currently equipped to effectively support these vulnerable families, highlighting the need for rigorous research that will contribute to the development of a sustainable healthcare service, thereby enhancing the health and well-being of children and their families.
The overall aim of the project is to optimize nursing services to promote wellbeing in families who have children with complex care needs at home. An existential caring orientation provides the theoretical foundation for the three sub studies of this research.
Carina Nygård, Anne Mary Gerard Clancy, Gabriele Kitzmüller :
Balancing on life's ladder: A meta-ethnography of the existential experiences of siblings of children with complex care needs Journal of Advanced Nursing 2023. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.15991.
Carina Nygård, Anne Mary Gerard Clancy, Gabriele Kitzmüller :
“I Am Forever Changed”: A Phenomenological Study of the Existential Experiences of Parents of Children and Young People With Complex Care Needs. Journal of Advanced Nursing 2024. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.16509.
Carina Nygård, Anne Clancy, Gabriele Kitzmüller :
Carrying the Unspoken: A Phenomenological Study of the Existential Experiences of Siblings of Children With Complex Care Needs. Journal of Clinical Nursing (JCN) 02. December 2025. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.70164
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The doctoral thesis is being conducted at UiT, Master in Nursing Science, Department of Health and Care Sciences by PHD candidate Carina Nygård and supervisors Associate Professor Gabriele Kitzmüller and Professor Anne Clancy.