While most family members now have access to the delivery room to observe the beginning of life, those same family members are largely prohibited from viewing the resuscitative efforts of loved ones in the emergency room. Despite research to the contrary, most hospitals persist in prohibiting family members from being present during invasive procedures and/or resuscitation because of unfounded concerns. The lack of understanding about potential benefits of family presence leaves both clients and providers frustrated and potentially culpable. The purpose of this capstone project was to describe the level of family presence self-awareness of clinical department head administrators within a selected healthcare organization before and after a family presence teaching intervention. The rationale for the project was that development of a family-presence policy for the selected acute care setting would foster family presence throughout the facility. The goal of the project was to successfully implement a family presence teaching intervention for clinical department head administrators within a healthcare organization.
