Advances in healthcare technology in recent decades have increased the life expectancy of the population. The aim of this study was to investigate the experience of being dependent on technology for children/adolescents. It is a descriptive and exploratory study with a qualitative approach, conducted in a pediatric hospital in southern Brazil, in 2011. The study participants were six children and adolescents. An interview and daily interactions were used for the data collection. The results were grouped into three themes: coping with the technological device; overcoming the disease and the technological device, and the challenges experienced by the children and adolescents with the technological device at home and at school. It was evidenced that the technological dependence goes through moments of adaptation to meet the needs generated, therefore, it is important that the approach of the healthcare professionals, particularly the nursing professionals, contemplate the dimensions involved in caring for technology-dependent children/adolescents and their families.
Child; Adolescent; Pediatric nursing; Biomedical technology