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To the Editors:

I was very enthused to read the article by Wagner titled "Lived Experience of Critically Ill Patients’ Family Members During Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation" (September 2004:416–420). As a critical care nurse of 12 years, I have been involved in many resuscitative events and have seen many family members escorted out of the room when cardiopulmonary resuscitation was begun.

During resuscitation, the healthcare team is focused on the patient, often neglecting the fact that family members are also in crisis. Reasons commonly cited for excluding family members are largely attributable to the opinions and attitudes of the health-care team. In reality, there is no evidence supporting the traditional practice of barring the presence of family members. The recent awareness of family members’ needs is not just a matter of nurses questioning why family members must leave the room: Research during the past several years indicates that family presence is beneficial not only to patients’ families, but also to healthcare providers and patients.¹

Wagner’s study provides a good starting point for understanding families’ experiences. However, as a student of nursing theory, I would be interested to read more information about how Van Manen’s thematic analysis was used to analyze the results and a further explanation of how the theme "should we go or should we stay?" emerged. The problem of not meeting family members’ needs was clearly evident to me, and I hope to see future studies that further explore family members’ experiences, paying attention to the positive aspects of their experiences and describing actions they believe could have been taken to help better meet their needs. I also noted that all the families in Wagner’s study were barred from their loved ones’ rooms. I believe it will be important to describe experiences of family members who are allowed to stay with their loved ones during resuscitative attempts.

Research studies on family presence are needed if we are to continue building an evidence-based case for opening the doors to families during resuscitative events. Understanding family members’ experiences and needs during resuscitative attempts will help us, as nurses, to formulate plans that consistently and therapeutically incorporate the family into these attempts. In doing so, I believe we will be meeting the needs of family members as well as our patients and ourselves.

Mary Beverly Gallagher, CCRN
Pylesville, Md

REFERENCE

1. Mason DJ. Family presence: evidence versus tradition. Am J Crit Care. 2003;12:190–192.[Free Full Text]

This Article Full Text (PDF) Respond to This Article Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Gallagher, M. B. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Gallagher, M. B.