Aim. The present study describes, through a meta-synthesis, the relationship between patients, informal caregivers and health professionals involved in home care. Background. Today, many people receive help from health care professionals in their homes with the consequence that, for many health care professionals, their working place is the patients' homes. Research that addresses the dynamics in the caring relationship in home care seems to be rare. Design. A meta-synthesis is an integrated interpretation of qualitative research findings, which is more substantive than the results from each individual investigation. Method. We performed a systematic literature search regarding studies published during the period 1992–2005, using the search terms home nursing, professional and home health care. The included studies described relations in a home care context, between health professionals and patients or relations between health professionals, patients and their informal caregivers published in the same study. Results. The findings showed that when professionals entered people's home, the private area changed. The study presents an interpretation of the changed meanings of home as the place and space for professional care. We described the meanings of the relationship in two main themes with subthemes. The main themes are 'being there' and 'home care as a co-creation'. The understanding of relationships in home care is seen as the development of a professional friendship. This concept is reflected on through the writings of Aristotle and Alberoni. Conclusion. To address these concerns, it is important that home care providers, recipients and their family members develop friendships. These friendships should be a part of any professional relationship. Relevance to clinical practice. When health professionals enter patients' homes, they have to be aware of the risk of transgressing borders of privacy. In addition, devaluing patients' or their informal caregivers' knowledge and their opinions about the care is interpreted as an exercise of institutional power.

The majority of children affected by disability are cared for at home by their parents. It is well documented in research literature that the parents are in need of professional support. In the striving to improve the professional caring, it is also important to deepen our understanding about the meaning of informal support from the perspective of parents' life world. The aim of this study was to illuminate the meanings of lived experience of informal support, when being a parent of a child affected by disability. Thirteen parents, eight mothers and five fathers within eight families, participated in narrative interviews, which were analysed by using a phenomenological-hermeneutic method. The meanings resulted in three themes: 'being gratified by experiences of the child as having a natural place in relation with others', 'being provided a room for sorrow and joy' and 'being enabled to live an eased and spontaneous daily life'. These themes emanated from the experiences of other persons' being and doing in relation to the parents, the child affected by disability and the siblings. According to our interpretation, informal support means a life enriching togetherness, the core of which is natural human caring. The findings also showed that parents highly valued professional support concerning informal supporters