Nurses’ Perceptions of Family-Witnessed Resuscitation

Advantages and disadvantages of family presence during resuscitation (FPDR) continues to be debated among nurses and healthcare providers (HCP). Few hospitals have a written protocol for when this type of event occurs. It is important to understand and identify the risks and benefits of FPDR along with the HCP perception of FPDR. To determine: (1) nurses’ perceptions of selfconfidence, risks, and benefits concerning FPDR, and (2) explore differences by: years of experience, number of resuscitations attended, and number of times family members invited to patient’s room during a resuscitation. Design: Cross-sectional survey of registered nurses (RN) at a metropolitan hospital. Instrument: Participants completed two valid and reliable scales: Family Presence Risk-Benefit Scale (FPR-BS) and Family Presence Self-Confidence Scale (FPS-CS) as well as demographic data. Participants. The majority of the 154 survey participants were Caucasian female nurses. More than half were between the ages of 25 and 55 years old (73.5%) and had more than six years’ of experience (68%) as an RN. Work units of the participants varied, but the most prevalent unit was transitional care unit (27%). Over three-fourths were trained in Advanced Cardiac Life Support and had participated in a mock code. Most (54.5%) had been involved in over 10 resuscitations but only 38% had ever invited a family member to be present during a resuscitation. Analysis: Data analysis is ongoing. Descriptive statistics will be used to describe the FPR-BS and the FPR-CS results. Differences between groups will be assessed using t-tests and ANOVA