[Social representations about pediatric peripheral catheterization from the perspective of the family and nursingRepresentaciones sociales sobre el cateterismo periférico pediátrico en la perspectiva de la familia y la enfermería].

Introduction: venipuncture is an attribution procedure of the nursing team and stands out among the essential technologies to ensure the survival and therapy of acute/chronic child hood comorbidities. Objectified to discuss the social representations of nursing professionals and caregivers about peripheral venipuncture performed in hospitalized children.

Materials and methods: research outlined in the procedural and structural approaches of the Theory of Social Representations carried out in pediatrics at a general hospital in Minas Gerais in April/ September 2018. Sociodemographic data were collected and treated by descriptive statistics; free evocation of non-hierarchical words analyzed prototypically and lexicographically and; in depth individual interviews that underwent content analysis. All ethical and legal aspects are met. All ethical and legal aspects are met.

Results: the representations about the puncture, according to the nursing professionals, were structured on the difficulties in performing the procedure and the insertion of the mother in shared care and for the companions had a neg ative impact on their psychological condition.

Discussions: the nursing professionals' social representations of venipuncture were reduced to catheter insertion techniques, neglecting family-centered care, which in turn represented the feelings of seeing the punctured child.

Con clusions: the representational approximations/distinctions identified between the subgroups about puncture in children contributed with reflections pointing to the need for a sociocultural and humanized resizing of nursing care.