The family support person role during resuscitation: A qualitative exploration

Background: Nurses can serve as family support persons when family members witness a loved one’s resuscitation. However, few studies have examined the role of family support person, and no clinical guidelines exist to provide nurses with sufficient knowledge to enact the role. Objectives: To provide guidance to nurses by examining how critical care nurses perceive and perform the family support person role during patient resuscitation. Methods: An exploratory-descriptive qualitative design was used. Sixteen critical care nurses who had served as a family support person completed with individual, semi-structured interviews. The data were analyzed by thematic analysis. Results: Six themes were identified to explain nurses’ perceptions of the role and key role activities: Hard but Rewarding Role , Be With, Assess, First Moments, Explain , and Support. Conclusions: Findings provide nurses with knowledge for fulfilling key aspects of the family support person role. 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 witnessing resuscitation. Key role activities included: being fully present and compassionately attentive to family, continuously assessing family members, coordinating first moments when family presence during resuscitation commences, explaining in simple and tailored terms the resuscitation activities, and supporting the family emotionally and psychologically using a variety of strategies