FAMILY PRESENCE DURING RESUSCITATION: A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY OF PERCEPTIONS OF NURSING STUDENTS

Family Presence During Resuscitation (FPDR) first proposed in 1987, has been recommended by numerous professional nursing organizations. Although studies have been conducted investigating the views of family members and healthcare professionals concerning FPDR, little is known about perceptions of nursing students. Due to this gap in the literature, we investigated the attitudes of nursing students toward FPDR as they will be future members of the largest healthcare profession in the United States. This study was guided by the Relationship Based Care Model, which is a way to provide care for our patients and their families. A descriptive cross-sectional study using Qualtrics was designed to identify the attitudes of nursing students from the largest BSN program in Northeast Ohio toward FPDR. The secondary aim was to investigate if age and work experience in a healthcare setting impacted the attitudes of nursing students towards FPDR. Funding for the project was provided by Kent State University Research Council, and Institutional Review Board approval was obtained prior to data collection which commenced in Summer 2023. By the end of Fall 2023 semester, a total of 96 participants were enrolled in the study which yielded a response rate of 53.6% of 179 eligible students enrolled in a senior-level critical care course. This study did not reach statistical significance in attitudes toward FPDR based on age and work experience in healthcare. However, 67.2% of the participants reported they would support FPDR.