Support of fathers of infants by the child health nurse

Abstract

The child health nurse is considered to be able to support fathers in the transition to parenthood, through utilizing the fathers' inherent resources for the best development of the child. The aim of present study was to identify what expectations fathers of infants have of the child health care, including the nurse: whether they feel that they have received support in this role and how they think the nurse can support new fathers. A qualitative descriptive design was used with an inductive approach using grounded theory, which was suitable to obtain knowledge and understanding of how fathers perceived and interpreted their interaction with their child health nurse. Twenty fathers of infants gave their informed consent to participate. They were interviewed and data were systematically analysed on three levels by constant comparative method. From the analysis, the core category trustful relationship was discovered, comprising the categories involvement, faith and support. Nurses ought to reflect on that a father of an infant may feel slighted at the child health clinic if, as traditionally, the nurse turns only to the mother. Many fathers of today want to share the infant care and they want more communication with the nurse. It is suggested that in the long run, support in early fatherhood may be of benefit for the child and for the family. If the father has a trustful relationship with the nurse, his involvement in child health care is presumed to increase, as is the possibility of having faith in the nurse, as well as receiving support in his role as father. The findings are discussed in relation to literature in the field.

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