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With respect to "Attitudes Toward and Beliefs About Family Presence: A Survey of Healthcare Providers, Patients’ Families, and Patients,"¹ readers of AJCC also may like to know that family presence is supported by the American College of Critical Care Medicine and the Society of Critical Care Medicine in a recent guideline on family support.² (Editor’s note: The abstract of the American College of Critical Care Medicine report was cited as a "helpful resource" on the AJCC Patient Care Page that followed the article by Duran and colleagues in our May 2007 issue, page 283.)

An entire section of this multiprofessional guideline is devoted to family presence. In fact, the level of evidence supporting family presence for cardiopulmonary resuscitation and invasive procedures was higher than in other sections of the guideline, which includes topics such as family decision-making, cultural and religious support, family coping, staff stress, and family visitation.

Duran and colleagues find what several have found before them: those who have participated in family support are more likely to support the practice. I call it the "what if" factor that prevents people from embracing this practice when they have not tried it. Healthcare providers get bogged down in all of the what if’s instead of looking to the values of our consumers and the evidence to guide their practice. In my own small study³ of nurses from a variety of hospitals in San Diego, 72% of those who had actually participated in family presence would recommend the practice to peers.

The nurses in this study admitted that their hospitals did not have a formal protocol to support them in the practice, but if they could change one thing, it would be to have a designated family liaison present during the code event. It is my suspicion that if their hospital did have a formal protocol as well as a family liaison, the number of clinicians supporting family presence would be even higher.

Judy E. Davidson, RN, MS, CCRN, FCCM
Scripps Mercy Hospital San Diego, California

REFERENCES

1. Duran CR, Oman KS, Abel JJ, Koziel VM, Szymanski D. Attitudes toward and beliefs about family presence: a survey of healthcare providers, patients’ families, and patients. Am J Crit Care. 2007;16(3):270–282.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
2. Davidson JE, Powers KS, Hedayat KM, et al. Clinical practice guidelines for support of the family in the patient-centered intensive care unit: American College of Critical Care Medicine Task Force 2004–2005. Crit Care Med. 2007;35(2):605–622.[Medline]
3. Davidson JE. Family presence at resuscitation: what if? Crit Care Med. 2006;34(12):3041–3042.[Medline]

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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 HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Davidson, J. E. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Davidson, J. E.