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Background Cardiopulmonary resuscitation and subsequent care are subject to various ethical and legal issues. Few studies have addressed ethical and legal issues in post-resuscitation care. Objective To explore nurses’ experiences of ethical and legal issues in post-resuscitation care. Research design This qualitative study adopted an exploratory descriptive qualitative design using conventional content analysis. Participants and research context In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted in three educational hospital centers in northwestern Iran. Using purposive sampling, 17 nurses participated. Data were analyzed by conventional content analysis. Ethical considerations The study was approved by Research Ethics Committees at Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. Participation was voluntary and written informed consent was obtained. For each interview, the ethical principles including data confidentiality and social distance were respected. Findings Five main categories emerged: Pressure to provide unprincipled care, unprofessional interactions, ignoring the patient, falsifying documents, and specific ethical challenges. Pressures in the post-resuscitation period can cause nurses to provide care that is not consistent with guidelines, and to avoid communicating with physicians, patients and their families. Patients can also be labeled negatively, with early judgments made about their condition. Medical records can be written in a way to indicate that all necessary care has been provided. Disclosure, withdrawing, and withholding of therapy were also specific important ethical challenges in the field of post-resuscitation care. Conclusion There are many ethical and legal issues in post-resuscitation care. Developing evidence-based guidelines and training staff to provide ethical care can help to reduce these challenges.

Background: Patients in the post-resuscitation period experience critical conditions and require high-quality care. Identifying the challenges that critical care nurses face in caring for resuscitated patients is paramount for improving the quality of care. Aim: This study aimed to identify the challenges faced by critical care nurses during the post-resuscitation period. Methods: A qualitative study was conducted through semi-structured interviews. Sixteen nurses working in the intensive care units of three teaching hospitals were selected using purposive sampling. Data were analyzed using conventional content analysis. Results: Participants experienced individual, interpersonal, and organizational challenges in providing post-resuscitation care. The most important challenges include inadequate clinical knowledge and experience, poor management and communication skills, lack of support from nurse managers, role ambiguity, risk of violence, and inappropriate attitudes of physicians regarding nurses’ roles. Moreover, nurses had a negative attitude towards resuscitated patients. Conclusions: Critical care nurses face several challenges in the post-resuscitation period. These challenges should be addressed through appropriate measures and strategies to improve the quality of post-resuscitation care. Relevance for clinical practice: In-service education, debriefing after resuscitation, promotion of inter-professional collaboration, and provision of support from nursing managers can be considered to improve the quality of post-resuscitation care and reduce challenges.

Background The presence of family members during the resuscitation of patients is considered a controversial issue in the worldwide. The present study aimed to examine the prehospital emergency personnel self-confidence and attitude towards family presence during resuscitation (FPDR). Methods In this cross-sectional study, a random sample of 252 prehospital emergency personnel were selected from 110 prehospital emergency centers. Two main questionnaire was used to collect the data on the self-confidences and attitudes of the prehospital emergency personnel towards FPDR. The SPSS software (version 26) was used to perform the data analysis. Results The results showed that the standardized score of the personnel’ attitudes towards FPDR was lower than the mean value (43.69 ± 19.40). Furthermore, more than 85% of them stated that the resuscitation process was stressful for the patients’ companions. There was a positive correlation between the personnel’ self-confidence and their attitudes towards FPDR (r = 0.52, p < 0.01). The results showed that the smaller numbers of the present family members during resuscitation were associated with the personnel members’ higher levels of self-confidence and their more positive attitudes towards FPDR. Moreover, the personnel members who were highly experienced, had liability insurance, and had attended the advanced resuscitation courses were significantly more self-confident than the other personnel members. Conclusion A large number of the EMS personnel members have negative attitudes towards FPDR. Therefore, it is possible to improve the personnel members’ attitudes towards FPDR and to increase their self-confidence by recruiting experienced personnel and training them for resuscitation in the presence of family, ensuring the timely presence of the support team, and preventing the people from gathering at the resuscitation scenes.