Aim: The overall aim of the thesis is to create knowledge about what it means for younger children toundergo needle-related medical procedures (NRMPs), and what caring support in relation to this meansbased on nurses’, parents’, and younger children's perspectives.

Methods: The first and second papers used descriptive phenomenological analysis to describe themeanings of supporting younger children during NRMPs from the perspective of nurses (Ι) and parents(ΙΙ). The third and fourth papers used lifeworld hermeneutic analysis to explain and understand theconsequences related to NRMPs (ΙΙΙ) and support (ΙV) during these procedures from younger children’sperspectives. Data has been collected by participant observations and lifeworld interviews documented byvideo-recorded observations, field notes, and audio-recorded interviews. In total 60 people participated,fourteen nurses, twenty-five parents, and twenty-one children.

Main results: The results show that an important consequence for children of procedures with needles isexperiences of fear. The child's fear affects how the child is able to manage the procedure and the supportthe child gets from adults is crucial to whether the child's fear increases or decreases.

The support consists of giving support or receiving support. Parents support the child by safeguarding andprotecting the child during the needle-related procedure; they “keep the child under the protection of theirwings,” sometimes very close and sometimes a little further out under the wingtips. Nurses support thechild by starting from individual child’s experiences and needs; they "balance on a tightrope" in anunpredictable situation. In the meeting between the child, the parents, and the nurses, the adults areguided by the child in what forms of support are provided. This continues until the needle-related medicalprocedure is completed and the child can walk proud and strong from the procedure with a feeling that "Ican handle this.”

Conclusions: Children’s need for support during needle-related medical procedures is primarily tied tochildren’s experiences of fear. For the child to experience a caring support, adults need to understandchildren’s experiences of fear as well as children’s need for support and what form the support shouldtake. A caring support develops dialectically between children and adults in a circular movement. In such adialectic, the child guides the adult and vice versa. That children have the capability of guiding adultsduring needle-related medical procedures shows that they are active and participating. Here it becomesclear that there is no objective location of the phenomenon of support. Support can therefore only bestudied as a lived experience of those who need it.