Family presence during cardiopulmonary resuscitation: cardiac health care professionals' perspectives.

Background: Family presence (FP) during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is becoming an increasing practice. Within current literature, the attitudes and beliefs towards FP of cardiac health care professionals in Canada are limited.

Purpose: The purpose of this project was to examine the perceptions of cardiac health care professionals (n=368) concerning FP during CPR.

Method: A survey was conducted to explore the attitudes and beliefs of cardiac health care professionals towards family presence during CPR within five Edmonton and surrounding area hospitals.

Results: The response rate was 46%, with the greatest response from nurses and physicians. Of the respondents, 44.3% believed that family should have the option to be present, and 40.9% believed that family should be allowed at the bedside during CPR. Less than half of the respondents had experience with FP during CPR. The barriers identified towards FP were lack of support for families, the experience would be too traumatic for families, families would not understand the procedures, fear of families physically interfering with procedures, FP would increase stress levels among staff, and tradition and politics excludes FP.

Conclusion: Despite less than half the respondents supporting FP the majority endorsed development of policy and procedures to overcome barriers to FP during CPR.