Family presence during resuscitation (FPDR): A qualitative study of implementation experiences and opinions of emergency personnel

Abstract

AimTo explore the experiences of nurses and doctors on the implementation of family presence during resuscitation (FPDR) in Victorian emergency departments. MethodsAn interpretative qualitative study design was utilized which incorporated the open ended responses on a state wide Victorian survey of emergency department nurses and doctors. A thematic analysis of the responses was conducted involving data reduction, identification of key words, phrases and themes. ResultsA total of 18 emergency departments consented to participate with a mean participant age of 41 years, made up of 91 (81) nurses and 21(19) doctors. The participants came from both metropolitan (64 (57), hospitals 300 – >500 beds) and regional (48 (43), hospitals <80 – 300 beds) health services. There were four emerging themes from the analysis; Depends on the day, impact family have on staff, organisational considerations and incorporating family centred care. ConclusionThere remain a number of variables which have been identified as continuing to create barriers to implementation of family presence during resuscitation that need to be investigated further in order to ensure emergency personnel have consistency of FPDR practice.