Healthcare providers have disparate views of family presence during cardiopulmonary resuscitation; however, the attitudes of physicians have not been investigated systematically. This study investigates the patterns and determinants of physicians’ attitudes to FP during cardiopulmonary resuscitation in Saudi Arabia. A cross-sectional design was applied, where a sample of 1000 physicians was surveyed using a structured questionnaire. The study was conducted in the southern region of Saudi Arabia for over 11 months (February 2014–December 2014). The collected data was analyzed using the Pearson chi-square test. Spearman’s correlation analysis and chi-square test of independence were used for the analysis of physicians’ characteristics with their willingness to allow FP. 80% of physicians opposed FP during cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The majority of them believed that FP could lead to decreased bedside space, staff distraction, performance anxiety, interference with patient care, and breach of privacy. They also highlight FP to result in difficulty concerning stopping a futile cardiopulmonary resuscitation, psychological trauma to family members, professional stress among staff, and malpractice litigations. 77.9% mostly disagreed that FP could be useful in allaying family anxiety about the condition of the patient or removing their doubts about the care provided, improving family support and participation in patient care, or enhancing staff professionalism. Various concerns exist for FP during adult cardiopulmonary resuscitation, which must be catered when planning for FP execution.

Background: Family presence during resuscitation has been a controversial topic ever since it was first introduced. Despite claims that it may exaggerate the burden on health care workers, this practice is widely gaining attention and a lot of evidence refutes these claims. In fact, a number of international organizations have supported this practice as being useful and with a positive impact on family members. There is not a lot of research in this area in Saudi Arabia and we conducted this research with this aim. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in the Southern Region of Saudi Arabia and 1185 subjects were enrolled. After attaining formal consent, a pre-formulated questionnaire, formulated on themes from the literature review, was given to the subjects which addressed some basic questions about their opinions regarding family presence during cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Results: Out of the 1,185 respondents, 174 (14.6%) had witnessed Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) of their relatives while 85.3% had never done so. This study demonstrated that more than half of the family members (58.9%) expressed a desire to be with their loved ones during resuscitation. While 587 (49.5%) people were concerned their presence in the treatment room may interfere in the medical help being provided to their relative, a slight majority i.e. 598 (50.3%) did not agree with this statement. When asked about the psychological impact of witnessing the CPR of their relative, 54.6% (650) people said it might affect them negatively in the long run while 45% (535) did not feel the same. Moreover, 609 (51.4%) did not feel their presence in the Emergency Room (ER) would help the patient in any way while 48.6% agreed that it may indeed do so. 69.8 % of attendants disagreed that they would interfere with the medical process if they were allowed to be present. Conclusion: This study supports that FPDR has shown promising benefits . Therefore, family members must be offered an option to witness the efforts of the medical team and their wishes must be respected and it is the duty of the health care institutions to facilitate this process . Key words: FPDR, family presence, Cardiopulmonary resuscitation, CPR