Working and caring for a child with chronic illness: A review of current literature

Background: Advances in medical knowledge have contributed to the increase in the number of children living with some form of long-term chronic illness or condition. As a consequence of these advancements, treatments that are more accessible and easier to administer, usually within a child's home, have been developed. However, this may mean that parents take on greater treatment responsibility and require extra time and energy to meet these tasks, additional to other responsibilities. This review paper aims to summarize and critique existing literature on working parents of children with a chronic condition, by focusing on patterns of parent work, the challenges experienced, and the flow-on consequences to well-being. Methods: Employing a narrative, meta-synthesis of the current literature, this review identified 3 key themes related to working parents of children with chronic illness. Results: The paper first identifies that although employment is less common, these parents are not necessarily nonworking. Second, these parents experience numerous challenges including balancing work and family, time constraints, stress, and feelings of “doing it all.” And third, the above challenges lead to additional impacts on parental quality of life. Conclusions: This review summarizes what is currently known about work patterns, challenges, and consequences in parents of children with chronic conditions. Employment is clearly impacted for these parents. Although workplace challenges have been extensively researched, other challenges (eg, personal and family) and impacts on their well-being have not. This review discusses the present standing of this research. It outlines the strengths and limitations of the current literature, makes recommendations for future research, and suggests theoretical and practical implications of the further findings.