Factors Associated With Emergency Department Health Professionals' Attitudes Toward Family Presence During Adult Resuscitation in 9 Greek Hospitals

Critical Care Nurses' Attitudes About Family Presence During Resuscitation: An Integrative Review

BACKGROUND

Family presence during resuscitation was introduced into clinical practice 30 years ago. Despite adoption of family-centered care by several health organizations and support for family presence during resuscitation by professional organizations such as the American Heart Association, critical care nurses' attitudes about family presence during resuscitation vary widely.

OBJECTIVE

To examine current evidence on critical care nurses' attitudes about, perceptions of, and behaviors related to practicing family presence during resuscitation.

METHODS

The method of Whittemore and Knafl guided the integrative review. Databases searched were CINAHL, PubMed, and Scopus. Articles included were English-language studies published from 2008 to 2022 that examined the perceptions of critical and emergency care nurses from adult units regarding family presence during resuscitation.

RESULTS

Twenty-two articles were included. Levels and strength of evidence were assessed with the Johns Hopkins nursing evidence-based model. The articles in this integrative review included a total sample size of 4780 health care professionals; 3808 were critical and acute care nurses.

DISCUSSION

Themes synthesized from current evidence included attitudes, benefits, barriers, demographic influence, cultural influence, and facilitators. Barriers and facilitators were associated with nursing practice in rural versus urban settings, age-related factors, years of experience, and unit-based differences in practice. Developing interventions to address identified factors can increase the practice of family presence during resuscitation in critical care settings.

CONCLUSIONS

Several factors influence the practice of family presence during resuscitation in critical care settings. Nurse leaders should consider these factors to enhance the practice of family presence during resuscitation.

Family support person role during resuscitation: A qualitative exploration

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

To provide guidance to nurses by examining how critical care nurses perceive and perform the family support person role during resuscitation.

BACKGROUND

Nurses can serve as family support person when families witness a loved one's resuscitation. However, few studies have examined the role of family support person to provide nurses with sufficient knowledge to enact the role.

DESIGN

An exploratory-descriptive qualitative design with individual, semi-structured interviews.

METHODS

Sixteen critical care nurses who had served as family support person completed interviews. The data were analysed by thematic analysis. COREQ guidelines were followed.

RESULTS

Six themes were identified: Hard but Rewarding Role, Be With, Assess, First Moments, Explain and Support. Findings explicated nurses' perceptions of the role and key role activities.

CONCLUSIONS

Nurses perceived the role as hard but rewarding. Role challenges included the need for quick, accurate assessments and interventions to keep family members safe, informed and supported, while allowing them to witness resuscitation. Key role activities included: being fully present and compassionately attentive to family, continuously assessing family members, coordinating the first moments when family presence during resuscitation commences, explaining in simple, tailored terms the resuscitation activities, and supporting the family emotionally and psychologically through a variety of strategies. Nurses noted the high variability in how families respond and the complexity of simultaneously performing the multi-faceted role activities.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE

To effectively support the growing global trend of family presence during resuscitation, nurses need the knowledge this study provides about how to fulfil the family support person role. Identifying the role activities may facilitate development of clinical guidelines and educational preparation for the role. Nurses can refine the many skills this role requires, building their competence and confidence, to increase opportunities for family members to experience family presence during resuscitation in a safe, and high-quality manner.

The Effect of Family Presence During Resuscitation and Invasive Procedures on Patients and Families: An Umbrella Review

INTRODUCTION

The concept of family presence during resuscitation and invasive procedures is a controversial issue and has not been universally adopted by health care providers. Owing to the sheer number of studies in this field, we conducted this umbrella study to provide an overview of this concept with the aim of investigating the impact of family presence on patients, families, and resuscitation and invasive procedures.

METHODS

In this review, using the Joanna Briggs Institute levels of evidence umbrella methodology guidelines, the authors searched PubMed, Google Scholar, Embase, MEDLINE, Web of Science, Scopus, and the Cochrane database for systematic review and meta-analysis studies that evaluated the presence of family during resuscitation and invasive procedures without time limit until July 2020. The following key words were used for the search: family presence; family witness; parent presence; parent witness; and resuscitation.

RESULTS

A total of 254 articles published between January 1967 and July 2020 were screened. Five articles (1 meta-analysis and 4 systematic reviews) met the inclusion criteria. The review showed that family presence during resuscitation or invasive procedures does not have negative effects on family members, patients, or the resuscitation or invasive intervention process. Family members focus on the patients, not the ongoing treatment. The presence of family members is beneficial for both family members and health care staff. None of the reviewed studies reported a negative effect on family members.

DISCUSSION

The presence of parents and other immediate family members during resuscitation and invasive procedures has positive impacts on patients, families, and health care staff.