Nurses attitude toward family presence during resuscitation in Saudi hospitals

Researchers: Abbas Al Mutair, Virginia Plummer, Beverley Copnell

In Saudi Arabia, when patients are resuscitated their families do not commonly attend, including when children are involved.  The presence of family in the patient care area during resuscitation events is a new concept to Saudi Arabia, however it is highly recommended by many health organizations worldwide for several reasons including patient and family rights. There are few policies or guidelines in Saudi Arabia to guide health professionals in their practice around the option of family presence during resuscitations. The lack of policy may be because nurses do not embrace the concept. The purpose of the study is to identify the nurses' attitudes toward family presence during resuscitation. This study is highly significant because the results expected potentially inform future policy development in this concept area of nursing practice.

A quantitative descriptive design was used to explore the attitudes of nurses of King Fahad Hospital‐Hofuf and Prince Saud Ben Jalwy Hospital at Al Hassa city in Saudi Arabia towards family presence during resuscitation. Through a self administered structured questionnaire 137 nurses were surveyed. The nurses were required to complete it within two weeks and the response rate was 48.9%. The sample was average of categories of nurses working in the two hospitals and has no less than one year working experience.