Help!! Visitor Problems!!

[welnet66]

I work on a med/surg floor in a large teaching hospital. The big problem I am having is with the visiting policy. Visiting hours on med/surg floors are from 8a-9p, there are no restrictions for children/babies and overnight stays are limited to one person in a private room only. However.... we have patients admitted who bring immediate family, extended family, friends, acquaintances, infants and bunk in for the duration. I'm not talking about family at the bedside of a dying loved one..I'm talking about any diagnosis/situation. As charge nurse, I have been confronted with issues such as people stealing from other patients, from our clean utility room, staff lockers, wandering halls at all hours, falling, demanding pillows, blankets, food, allowing children free rein, use equipment, sleeping on floors, sleeping in isolation rooms, chairs, clean beds, request nursing care for themselves, baby-sit their children; you name it. I certainly understand and have seen great results from those patients with supportive families but this is down right dangerous and disruptive to say the least. Enforcing visiting policy, I have met with suggestions that patient and family satisfaction come first. Of course it does but where do you draw the line? Does anyone out there have similar experiences and if yes, how do you handle it!!! Cath

[altomga, ADN, BSN, MSN, DNP, RN, APRN]

Oh thank god...I am not the only one that gets extremely aggravated with the loss of control over visitors.....

These people don't understand that it's a hospital, the person in the bed is sick, and needs rest!!!!!!!!!!!

Then they tell you to drug the pt so they can sleep, or after you give them some pain med the family member, whatever is in there poking at them and telling them to wake up...for F'in sake...how completely stupid can people be??? We have visiting hrs...11-2 and 5-9 2 at a time, no kids under 12 and only 1 over night....think that works??? yea right....I work nights and when I see 12 people in a room and tell the day nurse to tell them to leave and reinforce the visiting hours they simply say..."oh well they haven't been much bother"...Get a life!!! It is so dang creepy to be sitting at my desk at 2am and have that feeling someone is watching me just to turn around and see @ 5 people standing there "oh we just came to visit so and so" WHAT:confused: ???? GEEEEEEEEEEEEZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!

Oh this is a touchy subject......

I've gotta stop before I get nasty!!!!

[judy ann]

Another L/D story. Can you imagine the docs face when the female visitor (was a neighbor) told the doc to move. She couldn't see the delivery!

I've also had to fight my way to the warmer with a limp baby that needed oxygen and/or resussitation, while the family stopped me to admire the child.

I have had as many as 15 people in a birthing room. There just isn't space for that many people in those rooms! There has to be some solution.

[AHarri66, BSN, RN]

We had a situation once where a pt's significant other (they were both female) decided to come and stay, to the point where she "helped" the pt into the shower, and never came out! We didn't realize this until we heard lots of high-pitched screams coming from the shower. We ran over, and when we asked if everything was okay, we hear "oh, we're fine! The water was just a bit cold!...Tee hee!" Later, we find S.O. in bed with the patient, completely decked out in johnnie and johnnie pants, the two of them kicked back watching the tube munching on 'room service!'

Needless to say, those visiting hours were cut short!

[MandyInMS]

Visiting hours are a 'B' to enforce..you always end up the bad guy :/ Our facility's hours on med/surg are 7a-9p..but then there's always a family member that just can't leave Mama/Granny...ect..Which I understand..being the sensative heffer that I am..hehe..I guess you could say we just 'play it by ear'..if it benefits the pt.,causing no problems with care giving, we don't say much..but I'm sure we all have had to deal with the family that causes more problems than good..In that case I weinie out and get security to inform them of visiting hours and politley ask them to leave :) Guess that's why i prefer CCU..where hours are strictly enforced..with exception of dying pt..ect..then we limit to 2 @ a time. As far a kids go..that can get tricky..didn't there used to be a rule no kids under 12 ? or am I crazy? lol..so many timessss have I smiled and politely asked parents to keep kids quiet..when what I wanted to do was go into Mama mode and swat their butt...haha...Just seems a NO WIN situation many times....very frustrating.

[zudy]

It is so difficult to know where to draw the line sometimes when it comes to visitors. I had a pt last week in ED( 39 yr old female) who pulled me aside and asked me to back her up, her parents were in the waiting room, and she didn't want them in the exam room with her. I told here that was fine. Later, the parents realized other family members were going back, they yelled at our clerks( who had no idea why the parents weren't back) the parents went back to the exam room, and the pt was upset with me. I basically explained to her, as nicely as I could that at some point in her life she had to deal with her parents. My point is this,I wish it could be the nurse, who knows the pt AND thier illness who could decide with the pt who needs visitors and who doesn't. I personally do not like to be surrounded by family and friends when I am sick, but I also understand it brings great comfort to some pts. What I resent is having pts that are surrounded by family and friends because it makes the VISITORS feel better, not the pt.

[nimbex, RN]

Even worse is working in the ICU, with restricted visitation hours, and the day shift (no offense to those of you day people), lets EVERYONE come and go as they please. Visitation ends at 1730, it's `1845, I've just started my shift and there is still visitors throughout the unit. I make rounds to each of the 10 rooms and politely say, visitation ended over an hour ago, were changing shifts, can we expect you back at 9pm?.

Now, let me say, I am the first one to break the rules if the patient requests an overnight SO or extended time.......

But when I'm asking for patient confidentiality to give report (all can hear due to our set up), I expect it! Then I am the ass who won't let 7 visitors in the room at a time because the other shift allowed it.... despite lack of room due to a vent IABP, cooling blanket and 3 IV pumps. I exlplain I'll happily extend visitation time, so EVERYONE can visit 2 at a time due to patient safety with the multiple lines and I get FLACK that the other shift nurse let the whole group in!!!!!!!

I'm forced to reply that "I can't speak for THAT nurse but MY priority is your loved ones care..... so who will be stepping out first?"

Worse yet is your nightmare family who's patient does not warrent an ICU sleepover.... the patient is vented and not awake to know of their presence.... they only take time away from your patients and go to administration when you demand they leave.... administration overrides you.... then the family talks in the waiting room and now three to four families learned that a simple call to administration means a slumber party in the ICU!!!!!!!

Sorry, have to stop.... hyperventilation ...... whew! hot topic for those who love to bend the rules when appropriate, and hate when you try to inforce the rules to be fair to all only to fail at the expense of those who you care for.

It's not fair to the family patiently sitting in the waiting room to have the proverbial squeaky wheel, sitting in the patients room.

I feel that's what it is all about... nurse discression visitation, backed by administration.... what a laugh.

[ladyjane]

visitors are very difficult to deal with. my hospital is a planetree facility, and that means my job also involves making sure the fountain drinks are flowing, the coffee is brewing, snacks are accesible, (even have fam and visitors getting the staffs food). also, can you check my bp, give me something for my headache, etc. i'm sick of all this customer satisfaction crap, doesn't matter if i get you well, and you go home feeling better than when you came in, it was if i smiled, and kissed your butt while you or your visitors were here!!

[nimbex, RN]

Oh, ladyjane, you bring up the coustomer satisfaction.... t hell with quality nursing care.... many patients can't recognise it...... but did you give the husband a meal tray too along with a pillow and blanket, while that poor vented patient doesn't know they lack a pillow because you had to steal it to shut the family up because supplies are short due to budget.....

Oh, and your budget is now determined by patient satifaction scores..... good luck

[ladyjane]

so true...i saw a t-shirt once that i should have gotten, it said "i'm here to save your butt, not kiss it." we've also had a run of rude families and visitors telling us we don't know what our job description is, and what it entails! so tell me, oh wise one, just what is it? we are all biting our tongues, can't shoot off a smart reply from all the tongue edema!!

[mattsmom81]

Yes, our job is to keep everybody happy today it seems. And whenever 'somebody' isn't happy...be it doc, patient, manager, lab, xray, etc...a nurse has obviously done something wrong.

[sjoe]

And so long as nurses are willing to take the blame for everything in the world (which indirectly appeals to our belief that we are all-powerful and all-important), we can depend on being blamed. Why would it be otherwise?

[deespoohbear]

one good thing hipaa has done for me is cut down my phone time. if mr. smith's 4th cousin twice removed is calling to check on them, i can just politely say "i am not allowed to give information out. you will need to contact his immediate family for information" and there is not a damn thing administration can do about it, because now it will be the law of the land.

at our facility we do try and go out of our way for families, but sometimes it is too much. i can understand if the patient is dying the family being there and i can usually deal with that okay. what really ticks me off is when i have the 35 y/o pt who has uncomplicated pneumonia and every tom, dick, and harry thinks it is open season for visiting hours. i am getting to the point that i don't care who i tick off if i am doing what is the best for my patient. i have even asked patients in private "are the visitors getting to be too much?" and the patient absolutely looks relieved that you brought it up. i just tell them it is not their duty to patrol visitors and if they want the visitations reduced, i will gladly tend to it. then i can say, the patient has requested no visitors this afternoon...please try again....

another sore point with me about visitors is when you have on the patient's doors a sign that says: please check with nurse before visiting patient and the visitor just marches right in...i will bring the sign to their attention and they just brush it off..."oh, i know aunt agnes will want to see me" and they just walk right into the room....

okay, i better stop posting now. the longer i think about this subject the angrier i get, and the faster the fingers type.....