title: Assessing health professionals' perceptions of family presence during resuscitation: a replication study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Family witnessed resuscitation is the practice of enabling patients' family members to be present during resuscitation. Research is inconsistent as to the effectiveness or usefulness of this initiative.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the performance of two scales that assess perceptions of family witnessed resuscitation among a sample of health professionals, in an Australian non-teaching hospital, and explore differences in perceptions according to sociodemographic characteristics and previous experience.
  
  
  METHODS
  Descriptive, replication study, using a cross-sectional survey.
  
  
  METHODS
  An anonymous survey was distributed to 221 emergency department clinicians. Sociodemographic characteristics and perceptions of family witnessed resuscitation using the Family Presence Risk-Benefit and Family Presence Self-confidence Scales were assessed. Exploratory factor analysis was used to evaluate the performance of the scales.
  
  
  RESULTS
  One hundred and fourteen doctors and nurses returned the survey (response rate of 51.6%). Both Scales were found to have a single factor structure and a high level of internal consistency. Approximately two-thirds of participants considered that family presence was a right of patients and families, and almost a quarter of respondents had invited family presence during resuscitation on more than five occasions. We found no significant differences in scale scores between doctors and nurses.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings confirm the validity of the Family Presence Risk-Benefit and Family Presence Self-Confidence Scales in the Australian context, and highlight the need to support clinicians in the provision of family witnessed resuscitation to all families.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing and Midwifery, Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth, Western Australia 6845, Australia. r.chapman@curtin.edu.au
authors.forename: Rose
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chapman
authors.forename: Rochelle
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Watkins
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bushby
authors.forename: Shane
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Combs
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009726:Nurses / Q000523:psychology*; D010820:Physicians / Q000523:psychology*; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012151:Resuscitation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires