Fathers’ Home Health Care Work When a Child Has Cancer

Abstract

This report is based on qualitative interviews studying the health care work described by sixteen fathers whose children had been diagnosed with cancer. Childhood cancers are important diseases that are growing in incidence. Greater life expectancy is associated with intense treatment protocols, which often include chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, and sometimes bone marrow transplants. Parents or parental figures play a significant role in the treatment in the home, in the outpatient clinic, and in the hospital. But very little is known about the health care work done by fathers or mothers when their children have cancer. This article examines fathers’ home health care work, including specific health care, medical advocacy, administration/financial management, and emotion work. It points to the value and the necessity of further systematic investigation of the often invisible health care work that fathers may do when their children are ill.