Experience of Families During Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit

Abstract

This study supports encouraging family presence during cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The majority of parents who had been present and those who had not been present believed that all families should be given the option to be present.

Pediatric Drowning

“…However, presence during resuscitation in the emergency department has been shown to be psychologically beneficial for family members, particularly if the attempt is unsuccessful, as it decreases post-traumatic stress 23 and facilitates the grieving process 24 . There is very little literature exploring this concept in the prehospital setting, although it has been suggested that parental accompaniment in paediatric trauma requiring helicopter retrieval is probably beneficial for both the patient and the family 25 .…”

Lebensrettende Maßnahmen bei Kindern („paediatric life support“)

“…In einigen westlich orientierten Gesellschaften wünscht die Mehrzahl der Eltern, bei der Reanimation ihres Kindes anwesend zu sein [401,402,403,404,405,406,407,408,409,410]. Dabei wird die Anwesenheit der Eltern wird vom medizinischen Personal üblicherweise nicht als störend [403,411,412,413,414,415] oder Stress erhöhend wahrgenommen [401,403,412].…”

“…Dabei wird die Anwesenheit der Eltern wird vom medizinischen Personal üblicherweise nicht als störend [403,411,412,413,414,415] oder Stress erhöhend wahrgenommen [401,403,412]. Eltern, die bei der Reanimation ihres Kindes anwesend sein wollen, glauben, dass sich ihr Beisein positiv auf ihr Kind auswirkt [401,402,403,410,414,415,416,417]. Wird den Eltern erlaubt, an der Seite ihres Kindes zu bleiben, kön-nen sie leichter eine realistische Einschät-zung der therapeutischen Bemühungen und des Todes ihres Kindes erlangen.…”

“…Des Weiteren kann ihnen die Möglichkeit gegeben werden, von ihrem Kind Abschied zu nehmen. Familien, die beim Versterben ihres Kindes präsent sind, können sich besser damit abfinden und durchlaufen einen günstigeren Trauerprozess [402,403,404,414,415,417,418].…”

Family Presence During Resuscitation and Invasive Procedures

“…[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] Despite recommendations from professional organizations, consensus conferences, joint position and policy statements, and clinical practice guidelines regarding family presence during resuscitation, [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26] only 5% of critical care units in the United States, 27 8% in Canada, 28 and 7% in Europe 29 have written policies that allow family presence. Surveys of nurses' practice indicate that many, if not most, critical care nurses have been asked by patients' family members if they could be present during resuscitation and invasive procedures and have brought such families to the bedside, despite the lack of formal written hospital policies.…”