Family as an analysis category and research field in nursing

Abstract

The increasing information about family in nursing literature expresses the progress in this area of knowledge. The research contribution on family nursing has included the illness experience, and both the context of care and interventions. The increase of family research in nursing studies demands consideration regarding the research quality, in view of the complexity of the studies that deal with family. Researching family represents more than defining a unique group of study. The aim of this study was to discuss theoretical and methodological aspects which should be taken into account by the researchers in their work with families. The reflections and challenges when studying family and illness have been described in this work and represent our 10-year experience investigating families and illnesses in our research group.