• Julie Considine, Kathryn Eastwood, Hannah Webster, Michael Smyth, Kevin Nation, Robert Greif, Katie Dainty, Judith Finn, Janet Bray, and International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR) Education, Implementation and Teams; Basic Life Support; and Advanced Life Support Task Forces.
• School of Nursing and Midwifery and Centre for Quality and Patient Safety Research in the Institute for Health Transformation, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia; Centre for Quality and Patient Safety Research - Eastern Health Partnership, Box Hill, Australia. Electronic address: julie.considine@deakin.edu.au.
• Resuscitation. 2022 Nov 1; 180: 112311-23.

AimObjective: To conduct a systematic review of the published evidence related to family presence during adult resuscitation from cardiac arrest.MethodsThis review, registered with PROSPERO (CRD42021242384) and reported according to PRISMA guidelines, included studies of adult cardiac arrest with family presence during resuscitation that reported one or more patient, family or provider outcomes. Three databases (Medline, CINAHL and EMBASE) were searched from inception to 10/05/2022. Two investigators screened the studies, extracted data, and assessed risks of bias using the Mixed Method Appraisal Tool (MMAT). The synthesis approach was guided by Synthesis Without Meta-Analysis (SWiM) reporting guidelines and a narrative synthesis method.ResultsThe search retrieved 9,459 citations of which 31 were included: 18 quantitative studies (including two RCTs), 12 qualitative studies, and one mixed methods study. The evidence was of very low or low certainty. There were four major findings. High-certainty evidence regarding the effect of family presence during resuscitation on patient outcomes is lacking. Family members had mixed outcomes in terms of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and experience of witnessing resuscitation. Provider experience was variable and resuscitation setting, provider education, and provider experience were major influences on family presence during resuscitation. Finally, providers reported that a family support person and organisational guidelines were important for facilitating family presence during resuscitation.ConclusionThe effect of family presence during resuscitation varies between individuals. There was variability in the effect of family presence during resuscitation on patient outcomes, family and provider outcomes and perceptions.Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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