Study examining attitudes of staff, patients and relatives to witnessed resuscitation in adult intensive care units

Background. Witnessed resuscitation is widely accepted in paediatric practice and is becoming more common in adult emergency departments, but information on this topic is sparse. Methods. We gave a questionnaire to 50 intensive care medical and nursing staff and 55 patients and next of kin before elective postoperative admission to the intensive care unit to examine staff opinion about witnessed resuscitation, patient and relatives' demand for witnessed resuscitation, and their perception of the benefits. Results. We found that 56% of doctors and 66% of nurses favoured giving relatives the option to stay. If relatives requested to be present, 70% of doctors and 82% of nurses would allow this if the relatives were escorted. The role of the escort was felt to explain, prevent interference, and to provide emotional support. We found that 29% of patients and 47% of relatives wanted to be together during resuscitation, the commonest reasons being to provide support and to see that everything was done. We found that 95% of patients and 91% of relatives felt their views should be formally sought before ICU admission. Conclusions. Intensive care staff support witnessed resuscitation. Many intensive care personnel have experienced witnessed resuscitation and the majority felt that relatives gained benefit. Almost all agree that the views of both patient and relatives should be sought formally before admission to intensive care.