ABSTRACT
AIM: The aim of this study was to explore the attitudes and practices of witnessed resuscitation by the staff working in Level I Emergency Departments in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. Witnessed resuscitation involves the 'medical' resuscitation of the patient with their relatives or loved ones present in the resuscitation room (Boyd, 2000:171). METHODOLOGY: A qualitative approach was used to explore the participants' attitudes and practices of witnessed resuscitation using individual semi--structured interviews. The principle of theoretical saturation was applied and a total of six participants from two Level I Emergency Departments (one provincial and one private institution) were included in this study. FINDINGS: The emergency staff disliked the idea of witnessed resuscitation. They believed it to be a harmful experience for the witnesses, a threat to the resuscitation process and the emergency staff, and impossible to implement in their Emergency Departments. There were however, subtle references made during the interviews that revealed some aspects of witnessed resuscitation that the staff favoured once they had considered the practice. There were no written policies to dictate how the relatives were handled, but all the staff agreed that the relatives were asked to wait outside the resuscitation area, were kept informed and then brought in when the patient was stable or had died. A number of recommendations are suggested in an attempt to introduce witnessed resuscitation as an option in KwaZulu-Natal's Emergency Departments.