FAMILY PRESENCE PREFERENCE

Family Presence Preference When Patients are Receiving Resuscitation in an Accident and Emergency Department





Abstract

This paper is in response of Hung and Pang article "Family presence preference during life-sustaining interventions in an accident and emergency department," the author conducted research on the family member's experience whose relative stay alive and recovered in an accident and in the emergency department. The researcher decided to conduct research in the area where other researches lack. Hence, the research was conducted in Hong Kong, to explore the experience of family members and their preferences during patient's resuscitation in an accident and emergency department.

The researchers employed methodology of data collection that ensured the results validity. There were noted limitations such as the finding representation was limited. In spite of these limitations, the results are helpful to the create awareness about the behavior of family members and AED policies.

Family Presence Preference When Patients are Receiving Resuscitation in an Accident and Emergency Department

Summary and Research Question

Hung and Pang (2010) investigated the experiences of family members whose relative survived and recovered in the department of accident and emergency, in the hospitals of Hong Kong. This study was conducted in the area where researchers find the gap in literature, and formulated two research objectives. These questions focused on the family member's experiences, and role of the determinants constituting the preference of family members.

Literature Review and Gaps in the Literature

After an exhaustive literature review, Hung and Pang (2010) asserted previous studies, which showed that family members' during the life-sustaining intervention visited the patient as a visitor rather than members of a family that are concerned about the illness of the patient. Hung and Pang (2010) affirms that the most of researchers supported the view of family members presence, and acknowledged the importance of their presence.

Hung and Pang (2010) established that in 1999, Van der Woning conducted a research to described the family member's experience who had witnessed their relative during resuscitation. The family members are of view that their presence does not matter, and their experience was negative in nature. The main themes identified were sense of presence, discomfort and recollection, and interpersonal dimensions. Hung and Pang (2010) affirmed that Weslien et al. (2006), conducted interviews of family members who were present during the life-sustaining intervention of their close relative, and their presence becomes the element of disturbance during the recovery phase of the patient.

Hung and Pang (2010) also identified that most of the researches contributed in recording the preferences of healthcare professional. Few researches had been conducted to discover the inclination of family members when patient was receiving resuscitation after an accident. This gap in the literature is the basis for the study of Hung and Pang (2010).

Theoretical Framework and Research Design

The researchers used interpretive phenomenological approach, and data was collected from 18 family members, and the range of their age varies from 20 to 89. The study setting was general hospital in Hong Kong's New Territories South with 700 beds and 1600 ...