Father participation in the care of a critically ill child: a scoping review

To map and describe existing studies in the literature on fathers participation in caring for critically ill children.

Scoping review according to the JBI methodology. The search took place in October 2023, with studies published in full in Portuguese, English or Spanish, without time limits and indexed in databases and portals of theses and dissertations. Two reviewers read the title and abstract of the studies and exported the data to a Microsoft Excel® spreadsheet for grouping and removing duplicates. Data synthesis was done in written and visual form, using diagrams.

The search resulted in 961 studies, with 38 being eligible to compose the sample. The studies analysis allowed us to find that paternal participation in the care of a critically ill child involved benefits for the child, the mother, and the family; the forms of paternal care; the father's social role; the psycho-emotional, socioeconomic, and family impacts; and gender and sociocultural barriers regarding the paternal figure.

Paternal participation in caring for a critically ill child has proven to be a complex phenomenon that requires the deconstruction of historical, sociocultural, and gender stigmas related to parental roles.