Attitudes of emergency department staff toward family presence during resuscitation.

BACKGROUND

While family presence during resuscitation has been researched extensively in the international and especially American medical literature, in Israel this subject has rarely been researched. Because such policies have become common practice in many countries, it is important to investigate the attitudes of health care staff in Israeli emergency departments to better understand the potential implication of adopting such policies.

OBJECTIVES

To examine the attitudes of the physicians and nurses in the ED of Soroka Medical Center to FPDR.

METHODS

The methods we used were both qualitative (partly structured open interviews of 10 ED staff members from various medical professions) and quantitative (an anonymous questionnaire that collected sociodemographic, professional, and attitude data).

RESULTS

The qualitative and quantitative results showed that most staff members opposed FPDR. The main reasons for objecting to FPDR were concern about family criticism, the added pressure that would be put on the staff members, fear of lawsuits, fear of hurting the feelings of the families, and the danger of losing one's "objectivity" while treating patients. Physicians objected more strongly to FPDR than did nurses.

CONCLUSIONS

More research is needed on FPDR in Israel, including an examination of its medical, ethical, legal and logistic aspects. In addition to the views of the medical staff, the attitudes of patients and their families should also be examined.