• Gabriele Prati and Massimo Monti.
• Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Educazione dell'Università di Bologna, Italy. gabriele.prati@unibo.it
• G Ital Med Lav Ergon. 2010 Jul 1; 32 (3 Suppl B): B43-9.

IntroductionFamily presence during patient cardiopulmonary resuscitation and other invasive procedures has been discussed and debated since the early 1990s. Although family presence was nor a well-practiced phenomenon, nor generally accepted, since the early to mid 1990s many American professional organizations have endorsed the idea of family presence. The aim of this study is to identify the policies, preferences, and practices of critical care and emergency personnel for having patients' families present during medical procedures and cardiopulmonary resuscitation.MethodsA total of 378 nurses and medical workers filled out a 10-item survey.ResultsAmong the respondents, nurses tended to disagree more with family presence in comparison to physician. Critical care unit personnel tended to disagree more with family presence in comparison to emergency department personnel and especially pre-hospital care personnel. While 83% of participants disagree with family presence during cardiopulmonary resuscitation, 67% of participant endorse the view that family presence may foster collaboration between family members and staff members. Overall, 92% of participants worked on units without written policies allowing family presence.ConclusionsTraining programs aimed at disseminating knowledge about the relational aspects of health care and the development of written policies or guidelines for family presence during medical procedures are recommended.

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