Fathers and mothers developing skills in managing children's long-term medical conditions: how do their qualitative accounts compare?

Little is known about the respective experience of fathers and mothers within couples when managing their child's long-term medical condition. This study therefore aimed to obtain and compare fathers' and mothers' accounts of managing long-term kidney conditions. Qualitative study involving individual then joint semi-structured interviews with 14 couples (biological fathers and mothers of 15 children whose care is managed at a specialist unit). Interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed and analysed using Framework Analysis. Transcripts within and across couples were compared. Developing skills for home-based caregiving of long-term conditions is a challenging and uncertain process. Both parents often participate in caregiving, and the findings reported here may help professionals decide how best to support both parents in their home-based caregiving.