Emergency nurses’ perspectives of patients’ family presence during provision of emergency care at the emergency units.

Even though family members frequently have a significant role in the health and well-being of the patient, their participation is crucial to the patient's healing and recovery process and also brings benefits to the patient’s family and healthcare providers. The implementation of their presence may be a controversial issue for nurses. Aim: To determine the emergency nurses’ perspectives of patients’ family presence during the provision of emergency care at the emergency units. Setting: This study was conducted in the emergency department units of Alexandria Main University Hospital (AMUH), namely the reception unit, medical emergency unit, and Trauma emergency unit. Smouha University Hospital (SUH) namely the reception unit. Subjects: All nurses of both genders (90) who are assigned to the direct care of patients with medical or trauma emergencies at the previously mentioned units were included in the study. Tool: One tool was utilized for data collection in this study. “Perspectives of emergency nurses toward family presence during emergency care structured interview guide”. Results: The study showed that 96.7% of emergency nurses verbalized the importance of family presence during the provision of emergency care, from nurses’ opinion the most important advantage of family presence during the provision of emergency care allows quicker access to information about the patient’s clinical condition, 65.6% of emergency nurses had a high level of awareness about family presence during provision of emergency care, 91.1 % of emergency nurses had a moderate level of agreement about family presence during the provision of emergency care. Conclusion: Although the emergency nurses agree that family presence has benefits for patients, families, and healthcare providers they expressed both positive and negative views about family presence, generally they don’t prefer their presence during emergency care. Recommendations: Train healthcare providers to communicate and support the family during times of crisis and Comply with the practice of patient-family-centered care.