This study aimed to better understand the role of solidarity performed by family visitors and companions of hospitalized adults and elderly. The study used the nursing as caring theory as a theoretical reference and the Grounded Theory as a methodological reference. Nine family members of hospitalized adults and elderly were interviewed between April and September of 2002. The phenomenon: assuming the family visitor's or companion's role was identified from the results of the study, which congregates the themes: wanting to perform solidarity, and understanding being together as an emotional interdependence. We believe that when nurses recognize the singularity of the solidarity relationship and of family interdependence, they also exercises their work outlined in solidarity, because they collaborate for the re-establishment of the patient, relieve the patients' and their family's suffering and therefore, promote the health of the family group.
Adult; Aged; Family; Nursing