الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Emergency care means the management of an illness or injury that results in symptoms that occur suddenly and unexpectedly and require immediate care to prevent death or serious long-term disability. Patients who have emergency conditions need high-quality care immediately so well-qualified healthcare providers should be present while providing this care. The emergency nurse provides first-contact care to emergency patients; Therefore, they should have certain competencies, adequate knowledge, and skills to deal with a variety of patients during emergencies.
Unlike nurses in other departments, emergency nurses need to consider that care in an emergency unit evokes feelings, such as suffering, stress, anxiety, and depression so healthcare providers need to provide care to a wide range of patients and their distressed families in order to enhance families’ ability to cope effectively. An approach to support family members during this crisis period is patient- and family-centered care. Patient- and family-centered care is an approach in which care is provided for patients as well as their patients’ families.
The presence of relatives next to the patient is a recognized need, especially at all painful moments. Family members are the most important support persons for their loved ones, especially at sensitive times such as when the patient is undergoing emergency care and invasive procedures.
Nurses play an important role in facilitating family presence during emergency care. The presence of families during emergency care brings benefits to patients, patients’ families, and healthcare providers. Among them patients feel greater security and calmness, reduced patients’ pain, stress, fear, and anxiety, help the family understand the seriousness of their loved one’s condition and realize that everything possible has been done for their loved ones which facilitate the grieving process, the relatives offer information about patient’s medical history and the patient’s current illness and family participation in some care interventions reduce the workload on healthcare providers.
Despite family presence having a beneficial effect on patients, families, and healthcare providers. Some nurses had an overall positive attitude toward family presence during emergency care and others still strongly oppose this practice. Therefore, the aim of this study is to determine the emergency nurses’ perspectives of patients’ family presence during the provision of emergency care at the emergency units.
Materials &Method A descriptive research design was used to determine the emergency nurses’ perspectives of patients’ family presence during the provision of emergency care at the emergency units. This study was performed in the emergency units at Alexandria Main University Hospital (AMUH) and Smouha University Hospital; Reception unit which includes 31 beds and 25 nursing staff, Medical emergency unit which contains 20 beds and 25 nursing staff, Trauma emergency unit which contains 20 beds and 30 nursing staff, and Smouha emergency unit which contains 10 beds and 10 nursing staff.
A convenience sample of 90 nurses working in the previously mentioned emergency units and are involved in the provision of direct care to patients with medical or trauma emergencies were included in this study. Data were collected by the researcher over a period of five consecutive months (from January 2023 to May 2023).
- Data were collected as follows:
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A suitable time for conducting the individual interview was arranged with each individual.
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The sociodemographic and work-related data of emergency nurses such as age, gender, marital status, level of education, workplace, nurse’s current position, and professional years of experience were obtained and recorded using part I of the tool.
• Emergency nurses’ awareness about family presence during the provision of emergency care at the emergency units was assessed and recorded using part II of the tool. Emergency nurses were asked to answer yes/no questions related to their knowledge about the importance of family presence during emergency care and the existence of a policy to support the presence of family during emergency care. The questions were repeated with further explanation if the nurse did not understand it at the first time.
• Emergency nurses were asked to answer questions related to their opinion about family presence during emergency care using a 5-point Likert scale (totally disagree, disagree, neither agree nor disagree, agree, and totally agree) and recorded using part III of the tool.
• Emergency nurses were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with patients’ family presence during emergency care by asking them to answer 30 closed-ended questions related to the contribution of the family during emergency care and it included nurses’
opinions about family participation in patients’ care, assistance in the provision of clinical information about patient’s condition, recognition of professionals’ efforts during emergency care, and understanding the severity of patient’s condition.
• The nurses were also asked about the interference caused by family presence during emergency care, and it included the interference of emergency care by family presence, family-induced stress among healthcare providers during emergencies, compromise of patient confidentiality, and risk of litigation.
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In addition, emergency nurses were asked two open-ended questions to identify their perspectives regarding the forms of support provided by the family presence in emergency situations or interferences caused by them and the characteristics of both families such as age, level of education, and social status.
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The time spent conducting the interview was approximately 30 minutes.
Results
• Regarding emergency nurses’ awareness about family presence during the provision of emergency care at the emergency units. It was found that the majority of emergency nurses had a high level of awareness and a moderate level of agreement about family presence during the provision of emergency care.
Conclusion
from the present study, it can be concluded that:
The emergency nurses agree that the family presence has benefits for patients, families, and healthcare providers. They also expressed both positive and negative views about family presence during emergency care.
Recommendations
The following recommendations are suggested:
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Comply with the practice of patient-family-centered care.
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Train health care providers to communicate and support the family during times of crisis.
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Implement training programs to teach the new team how to practice while the family is present and how to deal with them.