title: Attitudes and perceptions of the general Malaysian public regarding family presence during resuscitation.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Family presence (FP) during resuscitation is an increasingly favoured trend, as it affords many benefits to the critically ill patient's family members. However, a previously conducted study showed that only 15.8% of surveyed Malaysian healthcare staff supported FP during resuscitation.
  
  
  METHODS
  This cross-sectional study used a bilingual self-administered questionnaire to examine the attitudes and perceptions of the general Malaysian public toward the presence of family members during resuscitation of their loved ones. The questionnaires were randomly distributed to Malaysians in three different states and in the federal territory of Kuala Lumpur.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Out of a total of 190 survey forms distributed, 184 responses were included for analysis. Of the 184 respondents, 140 (76.1%) indicated that they favoured FP during resuscitation. The most common reason cited was that FP during resuscitation provides family members with the assurance that everything possible had been done for their loved ones (n = 157, 85.3%). Respondents who had terminal illnesses were more likely to favour FP during resuscitation than those who did not, and this was statistically significant (95.0% vs. 73.8%; p = 0.04).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  FP during resuscitation was favoured by a higher percentage of the general Malaysian public as compared to Malaysian healthcare staff. This could be due to differences in concerns regarding the resuscitation process between members of the public and healthcare staff.
authors.affiliation: Emergency Medicine Department, School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 16150 Kubang Kerian, Malaysia. cksheng74@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Keng Sheng
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Chew
authors.forename: Zuhailah Abdul
authors.initials: ZA
authors.lastname: Ghani
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001294:Attitude to Health; D016638:Critical Illness; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008296:Malaysia; D010465:Perception; D012151:Resuscitation / Q000379:methods*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires