Abstract

Objective: Healthcare professionals have a role to treat patients with dignity and respect and at times, the presence of family members makes it stressful for the health care providers, especially when the patient needs either invasive monitoring
or resuscitation. We wanted to see the perception of nurses and doctors who deal with these situations regarding family presence during resuscitation(FPDR).

Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was done through a consecutive sampling of the nurses and doctors of a tertiary care hospital in Islamabad. An adapted, self-administered, valid questionnaire was used after the pilot study. The survey was administered in 4 weeks’ time. The result was analyzed in SPSS version 21.

Results: Out of 214 possible participants, 190 were approached and 185 completed the survey. About 70% of the participants were nurses and 30% were doctors. The mean age of the study participants was 28.32 with a minimum of 21 years and maximum of 48 years. Out of all participants, 56% were males and 44% were females. On the question
of allowing the family to be present in the resuscitation area, 74.6% of nurses disagreed along with 74% of the doctors. Both nurses and doctors (52.3% and 55.9% respectively) felt that family presence during CPR would result in more risk as compared to benefit.

Conclusion: Presence of family during the resuscitation of the patient is not seen as beneficial by most nurses and doctors. Although the healthcare professionals felt confident in communicating in difficult circumstances, yet they felt that it confers
more risk as compared to benefit and it is not feasible to have family present during the resuscitation.

Key words: Family presence in CPR, resuscitation, family witnessed resuscitation