Power, Resistance, and Family Absence During Resuscitation: A Foucauldian Analysis

Although family presence during resuscitation demonstrates benefits such as facilitating the grieving process through fostering a sense of closeness, providing reassurance that all efforts were made, and offering an opportunity for a final farewell, its integration for adult patients in healthcare facilities remains contested. Drawing on a Foucauldian lens, this paper explores the complex network of power relations that sustain resistance towards family presence during resuscitation. What counts as truth, and what knowledge is rendered admissible in this discussion, is an effect of the discursive power relations that envelop and organize this practice. Offering a perspective that moves beyond the dominant discourse of benefit-risk analysis, this paper explores the underlying structures that frame the context of family presence during resuscitation. Examination points to the tenacity of power that sustains medical and organizational authority amidst the proliferation of rhetoric of patient- and family-centered care. Knowledge mobilization to support practice advancement requires more than reiterating or disseminating evidence; it necessitates examination of the power relations that marginalize nursing knowledge, the identification of points of resistance, and the exploration of opportunities for nursing to act as a catalyst for meaningful change.