Evaluation of attitude of doctors and nurses of emergency department toward presence of patients’ relatives during cardiopulmonary resuscitation in selected emergency department centers in Urmia, Iran

Introduction: There are different aspects of the presence of family members in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). The present study was carried out with the aim to determine the attitude of nurses and physicians towards the presence of family members during CPR in educational hospitals of Urmia University of Medical Sciences, Urmia, Iran. Methods: In this study, 190 nurses and emergency medical staff were asked to complete a questionnaire. The sampling method was as counting all the participants. Data collection tool was a pre-designed questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of two parts: the first and the second parts were respectively related to demographic information and family presence during resuscitation (FPDR) issue and various factors influencing this attitude. After collecting the data, their analysis was performed using SPSS software. Results: In this study, 62 (44.0%) and 101 (53.2%) of the participants respectively agreed and disagreed that during the CPR process, the relatives of the patients had the right to attend the resuscitation room. A significant number of participants in the study (64.2%) believed that the presence of the patient relatives during resuscitation violates the privacy of the patient, regardless of his/her prior consent. Conclusion: The findings of the study showed that many physicians and nurses opposed the presence of family members during the resuscitation process, and the number of individuals who agreed on this idea was much lower, however in some studies, physicians and nurses were agreed about the conditions. This can be due to cultural differences and conditions and also the place where resuscitation was performed.