Cardiac arrest teams perspectives on communication and ethical conflicts related to awareness during CPR, a focus group study protocol

BACKGROUND: Awareness during Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) also called CPR induced consciousness (CPRIC) is a rare, but increasingly reported condition with significant clinical implications. Health professionals lack guidelines about patients with CPRIC, and to this date, no studies have addressed the complexity of communication and ethical aspects when continuing CPR while the patient is conscious. METHODS: We aim to explore Cardiac arrest team members perspectives regarding communication and ethical conflicts related to awareness during CPR. We have designed a qualitative, descriptive study using focus groups to discuss and reflect on patients with awareness during CPR. Focus groups consist of cardiac arrest team members (senior and training medical doctors, nurses and hospital porters). We will be presenting already published case reports about patients with CPRIC to focus groups to facilitate discussion and debate regarding the team members perceptions. Data analysis is inductive and based on systematic text condensation. DISCUSSION: Previous studies have suggested that external stressors affect the performance of a Cardiac arrest team. As a result of our analysis, we will aim to describe communicative and ethical challenges and concerns regarding awareness during CPR. Recent studies in the area point to a desire for guidelines and we hope to contribute with knowledge, that can inform the further process when developing guidelines and training team members to handle these stressful and important cases. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The study involves no healthcare intervention on human participants.