Healthcare professionals’ experiences and attitudes towards family-witnessed resuscitation: A cross-sectional study

•FWR has been proven to help families in their grieving process.•Physicians object more strongly to FWR than nurses do.•Local guidelines regarding FWR are still lacking.•Appropriate resources – such as a staff member dedicated to taking care of the family during the resuscitation process – is of outmost importance if FWR is to be implemented in practice. Family-witnessed resuscitation (FWR) offers the option for family to be present during a cardiac arrest, which has been proven to help them in their grieving process. International guidelines highlight the importance of FWR, but this has not yet been widely implemented in clinical practice in Europe. Explore nurses’ and physicians’ experiences and attitudes toward FWR in cardiac care units. Cross-sectional web-based multicentre survey study including the seven university hospitals in Sweden, with 189 participants. The most common concern was that the resuscitation team may say things that are upsetting to the family member during resuscitation, with 68% agreeing with this statement. Physicians opposed FWR more strongly than nurses (3.22 vs. 2.93, p