Father's experiences during the stay of the premature baby in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU): a systematic review protocol

Abstract Background: This systematic review aims to understand the father's experience in the neonatal ICU while accompanying his premature baby. Prematurity rates are increasing; every year, millions of parents faced having their premature baby hospitalized in neonatal ICU without being prepared to face this situation. It is relevant to talk about how fathers feel with the experience of being parents of premature babies. The father-baby attachment is affected by prematurity, thus performing the kangaroo care method with the active participation of the father is vital to promote the attachment between the dyad. Method: The authors will include original father-centered research articles, with measurements made in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Databases included articles from 2010 to 2020, are APA PsycNet, BVS, Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, and The Cochrane Library (Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. CENTRAL). Two researchers will extract the data and evaluate the quality of each study through the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) and the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) and references will be managed in the Mendeley software. This review will not perform a meta-analysis, results will be presented in a qualitative narrative synthesis that includes all the data found.Discussion: This review will contribute to the construction of evidence about the father's experience in the neonatal intensive care unit, as well as how attachment develops between the baby and the father in this field and how the kangaroo care method promotes attachment in this dyad. Ethics and disseminationThis is a protocol for a systematic review, therefore, no approval from an ethics committee is required. We will submit the article to a peer-reviewed health journal, and the results will be published in congresses focused on neonatal, child, and psychological health.PROSPERO registration number: CRD42019142086