The study aims to show the dimensions of vulnerability in the universe of the family, from the viewpoint of families with children with cancer pain in the hospital environment. It is descriptive and exploratory, with a qualitative approach, undertaken in the Hematology and Pediatric Oncology Center of a large hospital in the city of Porto Alegre -RS. Nine families participated, with the Creative-Sensitive Method used for data collection, through the dynamics of creativity and sensitivity, analyzed in line with the framework of Minayo's Content Analysis, in May-June 2010. It was observed that the illness raises situations of vulnerability, imposing suffering, pain, fear, distress, mental and physical strain caused by cancer on the child and family. Thus, Nursing, in appropriating the conceptual framework of the vulnerability, can visualize new dimensions of the health/illness process, helping the ill child and her family.
Pain; Medical Oncology; Family; Pediatric nursing; Vulnerability