Loading...
Service evaluation of support offered to inpatient witnesses of In-Hospital Cardiac Arrest
Hegarty, M Harris Snell, E Taylor, R
Hegarty, M
Harris Snell, E
Taylor, R
Abstract
Purpose of the study: In-Hospital Cardiac Arrests (IHCA) occur at a rate of 1 in 1000 hospital admissions in the UK. (1) A small number of studies have found that witnessing an IHCA results in physiological and psychological markers of stress and anxiety for fellow patients. (2) There are resources and guidelines available for supporting bystanders or relatives who witness cardiac arrest in and out of hospital. (3) However, inpatient witnesses remain an under-researched and overlooked group. This service evaluation aimed to examine what support is currently being informally offered to inpatients across four hospitals in Birmingham, UK.
Materials and methods: This was a prospective cross-sectional survey of current practice. IHCAs were identified from the hospitals’ National Cardiac Arrest Audit centralised dataset, which is updated in real time by the Resuscitation team. Visual checks of the IHCA locations identified if there were inpatient witnesses. Questionnaires were conducted with local staff or attending members of the Emergency Response Team. Responses were collected in a dataset for 6 weeks. The quantitative results were analysed as descriptive statistics in Microsoft Excel and a qualitative analysis was performed using a large language model.
Results: 20 IHCAs occurred during this service evaluation, with 75 inpatients being identified as witnesses. 72 members of staff were surveyed, of whom 22 (30.56%) reported having spoken to or offered support to an inpatient witness. Most staff offering support were nurses (n=18, 81.81%). Qualitative analysis of the concerns staff ascertained from inpatient witnesses highlighted themes of shock, fear and empathy.
Conclusion: This service evaluation found relatively low numbers of staff offering support to inpatients witnessing IHCA, with reported concerns from patients highlighting distress and anxiety. Further research with patient involvement is essential to understand their experiences and to develop resources and guidance to offer support.
MIDER Authors
Citations
Altmetric:
Date
2025-10-23
Type
Conference Output
Subject
Collections
Citation
Hegarty, M., Harris Snell, E. and Taylor, R. (2025) 'Service evaluation of support offered to inpatient witnesses of In-Hospital Cardiac Arrest' European Resuscitation Council (ERC) Congress. 23-25 October: Rotterdam Ahoy Convention Centre..
Journal / Source Title
DOI
PMID
Publisher
University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust.
Publisher’s URL
https://www.erc.edu/