| Summary: | Introduction: Child abuse is a major problem that occurs in society. The concept of child maltreatment includes psychological and physical abuse, sexual abuse, negligence or exploitation of children leading to injury. The child health care nurse has an important role in detecting child maltreatment. Healthcare professionals are subject to the obligation to report to the social services immediately when they become aware of or suspect that a child is abused. Method: To respond to the purpose of the study, qualitative methodology has been used. Eight interviews have been conducted and then reviewed and transcribed. Content analysis has been used to review data collection. Aim: Describe child health care nurses’ experience in suspicion that child is abused. Result: In the interview material, five categories appeared in relation to child health nurses’ experiences. Through vigilance the child health nurse can identify signs that a child is abused. Question to identify different forms of abuse can be asked. Being the children’s spokesman was considered important for all informants. Feedback on a notified case from the relevant agencies was considered desirable. Conclusion: The present study shows that participants feel safe to act when there are clear signs that a child is maltreated. There is a wish from the participants in the study on increased education in the subject and improved interaction between involved bodies.
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