Perceptions of nursing team as to the father as a caretaker in pediatric wards.

Abstract

Fathers have increasingly participated in child care. The objective of this study was to identify the perceptions of the nursing staff as the presence of the father as a caregiver in pediatric units. A qualitative, descriptive, and exploratory study was conducted during the first semester of 2005 in a pediatric unit of a university hospital in Brazil. Four nurses and fifteen orderlies were interviewed using semi-structured interviews, and data were submitted to thematic analysis. The results showed that the team believed that children need both the mother and the father, but the lack of space does not allow the presence of both. The nursing team also believes that mothers take better care of the children than fathers. Fathers are only accepted as caregivers in the hospital under special situations. It was concluded that the nursing team needs to think in how to help fathers to experience and to practice participatory fatherhood in pediatric wards.