Pediatric Resuscitation, Parental Presence, and Provider Perspectives

Lindsay, Julie

Wednesday, 24 July 2013: 4:10 PM

Julie Lindsay, MSN, RN
School of Nursing, UTMB School of Nursing, Galveston, TX

Learning Objective 1: The learner will be able to identify negative and positive aspects of parental presence during a pediatric resusiciation.

Learning Objective 2: The learner will be able to identify educational opportunites to encourage or promote parental presence during a pediatric resusication.

Purpose: Parental presence during a pediatric resusciation remains a controversial practice among health care facilities even though the Emergency Nurses Associaiton and American Academy of Pediatrics have endorsed this practice.There have been studies done from the famiy's perspective on the benefits or potential harm from this practice, but there has been limited information from providers perspectives on negative and positive aspects of parental presence or from their view point, what could be done to promote this practice.

Methods: A questionnaire was made available to nurses, physicians, and nurse practioners (n=50). The questionnaire consisted of demographic information and questions concerning palliative care, educational experience and previous experiences with pediatric resusciation in a likert format. The questionnaire also included questions on positive and negative aspects on parental presence during a pediatric resusciation that the participants were able to express their thoughts.

Results: The respondents consisted of: nurses 25, physicians 23 and NP's 2. The majority of the respondents were not in favor of this practice and felt the negative aspects of this practice outweighed the positive aspects.

Conclusion: Education on parental presence is still needed with physicians and nurses with the potenital benefits that this practice may have with families.

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