Public health nurses' conceptions of their role related to families with a child having attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder is one of the most common behavioural disorders diagnosed in children. Children who have this disorder have difficulties regarding regulation of their emotions, maintaining attention and impulse control. Parents may need guidance in creating structure and predictable boundaries. One of the personnel who meet these families is the public health nurse. The aim of this study was to explore the public health nurses role in relation to these families. A qualitative explorative design with a phenomenographic approach was used. Interviews were performed with 19 nurses, six in group and one individual. In the data analyses, three descriptive categories emerged: ‘supporting the family‐unit’, which describes the nurses supervising the parents and the child in everyday challenges; ‘understanding the child’, which describes how the public health nurses use professional competence and choose the time and arena to observe the child and; ‘collaborating multidisciplinary’, which describes how the public health nurses define their own role and conceive their collaboration with other professionals. The public health nurse (PHN)'s support for the parents and the entire family is important, and the PHN is the first encounter and trustful follower throughout the course of diagnosis and care.