The presence of family during resuscitation in critical care settings: Nurses perspectives

INTRODUCTION: Family presence during resuscitation (FPDR) is now an accepted practice in many western countries as research proven its positive impact on patient, family and also health care providers. In Malaysia, it is not known whether nurses in critical care settings agrees on family members' presence during the resuscitation process. This study aims to determine the perspectives of nurses toward family presence during resuscitation in critical care settings at Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia. This study specifically looked at the risk and benefits perceived by nurses related to family presence during resuscitation, the self-confidence perceived by nurses related to family presence during resuscitation, and the correlation between nurses' perception of risk and benefits with self-confidence related to family presence during resuscitation.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire entitled the Family Presence Risk-Benefit Scale and Family Presence Self-Confidence Scale. Purposive sampling method was used to include 130 nurses working in eight Intensive Care Units at Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia. Descriptive statistics and Pearson's Correlation test were used to analyse the variables of FPDR.

RESULTS: Findings revealed that nurses in the critical care setting perceived low risk-benefit and low self-confident with regards to family presence during resuscitation. Pearson correlation analysis showed no correlation between perceptions of risk-benefits and self-confidence among critical care nurses (r = -0.016).

CONCLUSION: Relatively, nurses perceived that family presence during resuscitation would place high risk and low benefit to the family members. Thus there is a need for education, training, and guideline to enrich the concept of FPDR and its implementation.