Parental presence during invasive procedures and resuscitation: attitudes of health care professionals in Turkey.
OBJECTIVE
An agreement among physician, nurse, and family on the issue and a solution developed by all will improve the quality of work. The aims of this study were to determine health care professionals' (physicians and nurses) attitude toward parental presence during invasive procedures and toward parental participation in this decision and to investigate the difference between the approach of physicians and nurses.


METHODS
This study was performed on the physicians and nurses of the Medical Faculty of the Department of Pediatrics of Ege University between December 2003 and March 2004. The questionnaire delivered was completed by 49 (94%) of 52 nurses and 51 (89%) of 57 physicians.


RESULTS
Parental presence during blood sampling, simple wound repair/suture, lumbar puncture, and bone marrow aspiration/biopsy was approved by 72.5%, 27.5%, 66.7%, and 82.4% of the physicians and 53.1%, 57.1%, 81.6%, and 85.7% of the nurses, respectively. None of the health care professionals preferred parents to attend during any kind of resuscitation. Attitudes of the nurses and physicians were found to be similar between the 2 groups except for simple wound repair. Major determinants of the decision about the agreement for parental presence were procedural invasiveness for physicians (reported by 82.5%) and level of sedation for nurses (reported by 75.5%). The mean ages of both groups of health care professionals who did not approve parental presence during invasive procedures were lower than that of the ones who approved for all procedures.


CONCLUSIONS
The physicians and nurses in the study population tended to prefer parents not to be present during procedures as the level of invasiveness increased. An agreement between the attitudes of physicians and nurses toward parental presence during invasive procedures is essential for improving quality of service, especially in the dynamic environment of the emergency department.
Egemen
Ayten
A
Faculty of Medicine, Social Pediatrics Department, Ege University, Izmir, Turkey. aytenegemen@hotmail.com
Ikizoğlu
Tarkan
T
Karapnar
Bülent
B
Coşar
Hese
H
Karapnar
Deniz
D
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000698:Analgesia / Q000451:nursing; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002648:Child; D016292:Procedural Sedation / Q000451:nursing; D003657:Decision Making; D004635:Emergency Medicine / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016529:Emergency Nursing / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents; D010372:Pediatrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D012151:Resuscitation / Q000451:nursing; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014421:Turkey