Presence of Family Liaison Might Build Case for Family Presence

With respect to “Attitudes Toward and Beliefs About Family Presence: A Survey of Healthcare Providers, Patients’ Families, and Patients,”¹ readers of AJCC also may like to know that family presence is supported by the American College of Critical Care Medicine and the Society of Critical Care Medicine in a recent guideline on family support.² (Editor’s note: The abstract of the American College of Critical Care Medicine report was cited as a “helpful resource” on the AJCC Patient Care Page that followed the article by Duran and colleagues in our May 2007 issue, page 283.)

An entire section of this multiprofessional guideline is devoted to family presence. In fact, the level of evidence supporting family presence for cardiopulmonary resuscitation and invasive procedures was higher than in other sections of the guideline, which includes topics such as family decision-making, cultural and religious support, family coping, staff stress, and family...