Abstract:

One of the substantive process of the university is the training of professionals, as is the case of nurses, whose essence is the care of the person, family and groups, which must be safe, technical, continuous, timely and humane becoming greater relevance in the child given his condition of vulnerability. The objective was to describe the social representations (SR) on the care of the child of nursing students from a public university of lima, keeping in mind that SR manifest a knowledge shared by a group of people who are built from daily experiences, information, models of thought, formal education that is received and that allows to analyze and interpret a concrete reality.

Qualitative, descriptive-interpretive-comprehensive study, based on Serge Moscovici`s theory of social representations, the technique used was the interview of 10 fifth-year students, using saturation sampling, the instrument was an in-depth interview guide.

The data analysis process was carried out in two moments:
1) the descriptive one, in which the open coding was carried out, from which five categories emerged.
2) The relational one, which include the axial and selective coding that allowed the integration of a general category called nursing care of child.

One of the subcategories was nominated: considering the child in his growth and development, which includes the satisfaction of his biological, psycho-emotional, spiritual and social needs. The second subcategory: establishing an interaction with the family, which constitutes a natural environment where the child receives care. In this context, the educating role of the nurse is vital.

The results show that there is an incongruity between the ideal right care of the child and family, with the reality shown in the testimonies of the students where the cultural and historical character of the child is not recued as a complex and multidimensional being, in the process of growth and development in the present, and the importance of the family as a main agent of care and socialization , aspects that are invisible despite being fundamental to provide the child with holistic and culturally pertinent care, showing that in the information of nursing maintains the hegemonic biomedical approach.

Keywords:

Nursing, Students, University, Child care, Social Representations.