Has proved acceptable to doctors in paediatric cases

Editor–We are interested in the debate about whether relatives should be allowed to witness resuscitation attempts 1 2 and support the Resuscitation Council's recent guidelines.3 For the past nine months our paediatric accident and emergency department has used a written protocol that designates senior and experienced nurses to be solely responsible for the relatives' needs when a child is undergoing resuscitation. Under this protocol, parents are invited to be present in the resuscitation room if they wish to be after they have been given a full explanation and after prior notification of the leader of the resuscitation team. Thus the first moments of the resuscitation are undertaken in the absence of the relatives, who are being informed by the designated nurse of the situation and the events they are likely to witness.

A …