Implicaciones del cuidado de nietos en contextos críticos vulnerables sobre la salud de las abuelas

Abstract

Socio-economic changes in parents mean grandmothers take care of grandchildren, this activity can contribute negatively to grandmother's health. Objective: To describe the care of grandchildren in critical or vulnerable contexts of the city of Cali and the implications on the grandmother's health. Method: Qualitative descriptive, focused ethnography; for 9 months, with 11 grandmothers caring for grandchildren from 0 to 6 years, the ethnographic analysis was intensive, parallel to the collection of information through participant observation, semi-structured interview and field diary. The thesis was ethically endorsed. Results: four cultural themes 1) Grandmother whose history has repercussions on her feeling of being kepered and on the intensity of caring for grandchildren nowadays. 2) Unpaid domestic work and care of grandchildren as a way of making herself visible to her family. 3) Vulnerable critical context reflected within the grandmother's home. 4) The intensity of domestic work, the care of grandchildren, the aggressive family environment and the scarcity of resources affect the grandmother's health.  Conclusion: Caring for the grandchild in critical and/or vulnerable contexts becomes a social determinant of the grandmother's health; poverty, insecurity and violence have gone beyond the limits of the home; she experiences loss of the right to participate in household decisions to the point of feeling pushed aside. Nursing should address this issue in the formulation of improvement plans, participate with the grandmothers in parenting school.