[Presence of family members while performing invasive procedures. A prospective study]

Introduction: Family members of child patients have traditionally not been allowed to be present during invasive procedures.

Objectives: To evaluate the level of satisfaction of family members, healthcare professionals, and the patients themselves, when family members are present during invasive procedures carried out in the pediatric emergency department.

Materials and methods: A prospective observational study was carried out, which included a questionnaire containing demographic information, the details of the procedure, and the level of satisfaction of the patient, their family members, and the healthcare professionals present.

Results: Data was obtained from 75 procedures. In 5 of these, family members chose not to be present during the procedure. The most frequent procedures were lumbar punctures (44%), laceration repairs (22,7%) and venopunctures (17,3%). All (100%) the children who were asked wanted their family members to be present. 90% of family members and 57% of healthcare professionals were of the opinion that the presence of family members facilitated the procedure. Furthermore, 90% of family members and 76% of healthcare professionals thought that family presence was beneficial to the patient. 95% of family members and 71% of healthcare professionals thought that the option to be present during invasive procedures should be given to family members. 73% of healthcare professionals were satisfied with the presence of family members. On a scale of one to ten, overall satisfaction of family members was 9.5.

Conclusions: In our experience, family presence during invasive procedures is possible, and we have found this to be beneficial to the child. We also found that both family members and healthcare professionals were accepting and also satisfied with this new practice policy.