Hi everyone,
I'm currently looking at various policies re: visitation in the ICU and it got me thinking about issues with shift change. At our 10-bed ICU/stepdown, we restrict visitors from 0700-0730 and 1900-1930; my personal feeling is that we should extend it to 0800 so that each nurse has enough time to at the very least give the patient a once-over after receiving report.
A coworker suggested doing away with visitor/call restrictions during shift change altogether, in the name of family centered care...I did a cursory web search for any studies focusing on visitation and shift change, but came up with nothing. (I plan to research more extensively on EBSCO or other scholarly database in the near future).
There is, however, plenty of anecdotal evidence abound. My question to you all is: have you heard of open visitation during shift change? If so, do you know how well it has/has not worked for that unit?