This NUR 301 Module 5 page holds one finished policy revision on family presence during resuscitation, in APA 7 student form with the current policy, the evidence, a revision table, an implementation plan and references. Searches like "nur 301 module 5 assignment", "nur301 module 5 policy revision" and "nur 301 module 5 example" land here.
The NUR 301 Module 5 example, in full
Revising a Resuscitation Policy to Allow Family Presence: Evidence, Revised Wording and an Implementation Plan
[Student Name]
Southern New Hampshire University
NUR 301: Concepts of Professional Nursing Practice
Module Five Policy Revision
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The organization, setting and figures below are a composite written as a model document. No real employer, client, colleague or patient is described.
Revising a Resuscitation Policy to Allow Family Presence: Evidence, Revised Wording and an Implementation Plan
The composite community hospital described in this paper has a policy titled Management of Cardiopulmonary Arrest in Adult Inpatient Units. Its operative sentence on families reads: visitors and family members will be escorted from the room when a code is called and may return when the patient is stabilized or when the physician in charge permits. Nurses on the medical and cardiac units report that the policy is applied inconsistently. Some families are removed while others remain because no one is free to escort them, and relatives who are removed often describe the experience of waiting in a hallway, not knowing whether their loved one is alive, as the worst moment of the admission.
This paper argues that the policy should be revised to offer family members the option to be present during resuscitation, with a designated staff member to support them, because the evidence shows benefit to families without harm to resuscitation quality. It reviews the evidence, presents the revised wording, and outlines implementation and evaluation.
What the Evidence Shows
The strongest single study is a randomized trial conducted by prehospital emergency teams in France, in which the families of patients in cardiac arrest at home were either systematically offered the chance to watch resuscitation or managed according to usual practice. Relatives who were offered the chance to be present had fewer symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder at 90 days than relatives in the control group, and the presence of family did not change resuscitation characteristics, patient survival or the stress levels reported by the medical teams (Jabre et al., 2013). The trial was conducted outside hospitals, so its findings apply to inpatient units by extension rather than directly.
Systematic reviews broaden the picture. A review and meta-analysis of studies on offering family presence during resuscitation found that it was associated with benefits for family members, including less anxiety and fewer symptoms of post-traumatic stress, and did not find evidence that it worsened patient outcomes or disrupted care, although the certainty of evidence was low for many outcomes (Oczkowski et al., 2015). A more recent systematic review of family presence during adult resuscitation reached broadly similar conclusions and highlighted the importance of a staff member dedicated to supporting the family (Considine et al., 2022).
Professional guidance has moved in the same direction. A practice alert from the national critical care nursing organization recommends that all patients have the option of family presence during resuscitation and invasive procedures, that hospitals have written policies supporting it, and that staff be educated in how to support families during these events (American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, 2016). Taken together, the evidence supports offering family presence as a choice, supported by trained staff, rather than excluding families by default.
Revised Policy Wording
The table below sets each current clause beside the proposed revision and the reason for the change.
Table 1
Current and Revised Clauses of the Adult Resuscitation Policy
| Current clause | Revised clause | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Visitors and family members will be escorted from the room when a code is called. | Family members present when a code is called will be offered the option to remain in the room with a designated family support person. | Offering presence is associated with fewer post-traumatic stress symptoms in relatives and no measured harm to resuscitation. |
| Family may return when the patient is stabilized or when the physician in charge permits. | The code leader may ask the family support person to escort family out if their presence interferes with care; the reason will be documented. | Keeps authority with the resuscitation team while making removal an exception with a stated reason. |
| No clause. | The charge nurse or another trained staff member will serve as family support person, explaining what is happening and attending to family needs. | Guidance and reviews identify dedicated support as essential to safe family presence. |
| No clause. | Staff will document the family's choice and any support provided in the resuscitation record. | Allows the policy to be evaluated and supports consistent practice. |
Implementation
Implementation would take four months. The policy would first be presented to the nursing practice council and the resuscitation committee, which includes physicians, respiratory therapists and pharmacists, because family presence changes the environment for the whole team. After approval, charge nurses and resource nurses would complete a two-hour session on supporting families during resuscitation, including what to say, where to position the family, and when to recommend leaving. Brief education for physicians and respiratory therapists would cover the new clauses and the evidence behind them.
Two practical supports would be added. A laminated family support card, kept on each code cart, would remind the support person of key phrases and steps. A chaplain or social worker would be paged with every adult code so that the family support person is not left alone during a long resuscitation. Staff concerns should be expected. Some clinicians worry that family members will interfere or that the team will feel watched. Sharing the evidence that team stress did not increase in the randomized trial, and emphasizing that the code leader keeps the authority to ask families to step out, should address both concerns.
Evaluation
The policy would be evaluated after six months using three measures. The first is uptake: the proportion of adult codes with family present at the time of arrest in which family members were offered the option to stay, taken from the new documentation field. The second is staff experience, measured through a brief survey of nurses and physicians who participated in codes with family present. The third is family feedback, gathered through a follow-up call by the social worker within two weeks for families who consent. If uptake remains low, the committee would review barriers with charge nurses before deciding whether additional education is needed.
Conclusion
The current policy removes families from the room during resuscitation by default, and the evidence no longer supports that approach. A randomized trial and systematic reviews show benefits for family members without measurable harm to resuscitation, and professional guidance recommends offering family presence with dedicated support. The revised policy makes presence an option, keeps the code leader's authority, adds a family support role and requires documentation, which allows the change to be taught, supported and evaluated.
References
American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. (2016). Family presence during resuscitation and invasive procedures. Critical Care Nurse, 36(1), e11-e14. https://doi.org/10.4037/ccn2016980
Considine, J., Eastwood, K., Webster, H., Smyth, M., Nation, K., Greif, R., Dainty, K., Finn, J., & Bray, J. (2022). Family presence during adult resuscitation from cardiac arrest: A systematic review. Resuscitation, 180, 11-23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resuscitation.2022.08.021
Jabre, P., Belpomme, V., Azoulay, E., Jacob, L., Bertrand, L., Lapostolle, F., Tazarourte, K., Bouilleau, G., Pinaud, V., Broche, C., Normand, D., Baubet, T., Ricard-Hibon, A., Istria, J., Beltramini, A., Alheritiere, A., Assez, N., Nace, L., Vivien, B., . . . Adnet, F. (2013). Family presence during cardiopulmonary resuscitation. New England Journal of Medicine, 368(11), 1008-1018. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa1203366
Oczkowski, S. J., Mazzetti, I., Cupido, C., & Fox-Robichaud, A. E. (2015). The offering of family presence during resuscitation: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Intensive Care, 3(1), 41. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40560-015-0107-2
How this NUR 301 Module 5 example is structured
A policy revision is persuasive writing with a practical product at the end, so the paper runs in the order a policy committee would read it. It quotes the current policy's operative sentence and explains the problem it causes at the bedside. The evidence section weighs a randomized trial, two systematic reviews and a professional practice alert, noting what each can and cannot support. The core of the paper is a table that sets each current clause beside its revised wording, with the reason for every change. Implementation and evaluation follow, so the committee can see how the new policy would be taught, supported and checked.
Get NUR 301 Module 5 written to your instructions
Send the Module 5 policy activity instructions and rubric, and the policy you were asked to revise or the topic you want to use. A revision built to your prompt comes back in 24 to 48 hours, and the first sample is free. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Southern New Hampshire University document.
NUR 301 Module 5 questions, answered
What does the NUR 301 Module 5 policy revision usually ask for?
Sections commonly include an activity in which students review an existing workplace or organizational policy, identify a problem with it, and propose revised wording supported by evidence. The instructions may supply a policy or ask you to choose one. Your rubric decides whether a table, a memo format or a narrative paper is expected.
What kind of evidence supports a nursing policy revision?
The strongest support comes from systematic reviews and well-designed studies, backed by professional organization guidance such as practice alerts or position statements. Local data, such as incident reports or staff surveys, can show that the problem exists on your unit. Say clearly which source supports which change.
Should the revised policy be written in full?
Not always. Many prompts accept revised wording for the clauses that change, presented beside the original, with a short rationale for each. That format is easier for a reader to evaluate than a full rewritten policy and shows exactly where the evidence changed the text.