Nurses General Nursing
Published May 30, 2007
Pepper The Cat, BSN, RN
1,786 Posts
Ok - Does any else have this problem? Visitors who think that visiting hours don't apply to them! They seem to think that when the announcement is made that visiting hours are over, it doesn't apply to them!
This is what happened tonight that has gotten me so steamed up!
I noticed at 2200 there was still a visitor in one of the rooms. (visiting hours ended at 2030). I mentioned it to a collegue. She said Yeah - I've told him to go and so did Jane. So, as I was "in charge" I went in and said politely, "Visiting hours ended at 8:30 - you have to leave now". He said "I am the husband, I am staying". I said "No, you are not. You have to leave now. You may have 5 minutes to say goodbye".
I notice that the roommate is looking upset about his continued presence. (note pt is here for rehab, is 1 week + postop fracture femur). Visitor says "No, I am staying". I told him if he did not leave in 5 minutes I would call security. He said he was staying because he was "the husband". I reiterated - "5 minutes, then I call security." I list reasons he cannot stay, (roommate, not req'd, etc etc) And left the room. He comes up to nsg station, says he is going and wants my name. I gave it, said I was in charge. He said he wanted to stay. I said No. He left.
As he was leaving, 2 more visitors for this same lady come in! I say - visiting hours over! Visitors hold up special food they brought in. I said "Fine - 2 minutes, then out. From now on - please respect visiting hours". Finally they all leave!
I go to check on roommate - she is all upset, stated she thought was so scared he was going to stay all night. (COPD pt, does not need this type of anxiety). I reassure her and tell her we will make sure he does not stay.
He'll probably report me tomorrow - fortunately, 2 nurses in nsg station say they have my back - I was polite, professional, etc etc.
But OH! These people just make me so mad!:angryfire
Sorry - this is longer than I intended, but dang, I feel better now!
TazziRN, RN
6,487 Posts
Another reason nursing is so hard......the public thinks we are nothing but servants there to do their bidding, and how dare we ask them to follow the rules?????
Dolce, RN
861 Posts
Why are family member's sooo insensitive to the patient's roommates? I had a patient who was going NUTS because her roommates family member's child was screaming bloody murder. You know, those flimsy curtains don't cut out any sound. It is just plain rude to not leave when it is late at night and the other patient is trying to sleep. If it was a private room I would bend the rules, but a double room is just a big "no, no."
glasgow3
196 Posts
At my facility we have completely solved the problem of visitors following the rules: Administration eliminated many of the rules and the few we have left are waived if anyone complains.
In our critical care unit patients can visit as often as they like for as long as they like. People even are allowed to bring infants into the rooms----and they do.
Limits on visitor numbers, family members eating in the rooms, using cell phones next to equipment, touching the equipment, being loud etc......no longer enforced because they will complain to administration who will allow whatever and reprimand the nurse to boot.
The result is a unit which is unbearably loud, devoid of confidentiality, an infection control nightmare, etc....all in the name of Press-Ganey.
And the final "kicker"? Even though we have completely open visiting, in the 2 plus years we have used Press Ganey our "adequancy of visiting hours" question got 100% top scores for just 2 months' scores. It's been as low as the 70s.
Silverdragon102, BSN
1 Article; 39,477 Posts
I remember as a student being asked by one of the staff nurses to go round and tell people that visiting time was over (8pm) and then getting called back from my student room at 9.30pm as one of the patients was threatening discharge as I had told her husband it was time to leave. Got no support from the trained staff and was made to apologise for something I had been told to do and did in a professional manner. Once qualified I always made a point of going myself when visiting times was over as I didn't want to put someone through what had happened to me, the only exceptions was if I was caught up in an emergency
I am Nurseman
2 Posts
I really don't see it as much of a problem. As long as they are discreet and don't cause problems, they can stay all night for all I care.
Many years ago my Mother was dying in the hospital I worked in. I spent 3 straight days at her bedside. Nobody asked me to leave, but if they had.....well, there aren't enough Security guys in the WORLD to have dragged me out.
I see it a basic customer service, if they don't cause me a headache, I say let them stay.
Quickbeam, BSN, RN
1,011 Posts
In my 21 years of nursing, I've never worked anywhere that had any limits on visiting. What was most difficult was working nights on a very busy pediatric floor and having streams of visitors coming in at 2 AM demanding
meals/bedding/turning the TV on/ you name it.
Both times my husband was hospitalized I never left him. I caught 2 serious medication errors in time. Our local hospital only has private rooms. I slept in a chair at the bedside. I can see why spouses would want to do that.
santhony44, MSN, RN, NP
1,703 Posts
I really don't see it as much of a problem. As long as they are discreet and don't cause problems, they can stay all night for all I care. Many years ago my Mother was dying in the hospital I worked in. I spent 3 straight days at her bedside. Nobody asked me to leave, but if they had.....well, there aren't enough Security guys in the WORLD to have dragged me out.I see it a basic customer service, if they don't cause me a headache, I say let them stay.
But in the OP's post, the husband was causing a problem- the roommate was upset and worried he was going to stay all night.
Private rooms would solve that problem, but that's not always feasible in some facilities.
MarySunshine
388 Posts
I'm so sick of this. Visiting at all ungodly hours is rarely for the patient's benefit (heck, they have to sleep SOMETIME). And EVERYONE thinks that they are THE EXCEPTION to the rule. We're supposed to only let people break the rules if the patient is actively dying or is under 18. But damned if administration is going to back you up if you try to enforce it with someone who is refusing to leave. So, if someone is really standing their ground then we have to back down. Then all the other family members on the unit start asking why they can't stay too. ARGH!!!!!
At the rate my ICU is going, I'm expecting the operating room and cath lab to have a free visiting policy soon....
rita359
437 Posts
Must say that when my mother and son were in the hospital someone was there almost all the time. Being a nurse I kept quiet and out of the way. It was 2330 when I discovered Mom had no output the shift before and had a fc. Turns out no one even knew it was a problem and besides she had 80 mg of lasix ordered q8h which she also had at 4 with no output. I just know the midnight dose would do better for someone dehydrated. I've said for almost 20 years now that with nurse patient ratios of 1/8 or more and with sicker and sicker patients in that 1/8 the staff can't care for all the little things patients need. Mom's few sips of water would have been a real irritation to staff and she would not have asked them for it but we were more than glad to do whatever we could to make her comfortable. See what you think when it is your loved one in the bed.
arpeggiated
74 Posts
Dying patients we try to put in a private room so family can visit as much as they please.
There was one patient if I had on an assignment again, I was going to be very unwise in my choice of words. Her roommate had terminal colon CA, had a colostomy, and was in for a small bowel obstruction. Her daughter was at Stanford, recieving treatment for recently dx brain cancer, with poor prognosis. They had been profiled in our town's paper. She was the sweetest, most wonderful lady I've met.
The roommate came in with pneumothorax s/p MVA. Yes, I'm sorry you got in a car accident on vacation and had to come to the hospital. Yes, I know colostomies don't smell that wonderful. But you DON'T need your husband and adult daughter staying with you 24 hours a day. You don't need three cans of air freshener. You don't need me to heat up McDonald's at three in the morning, when your roommate is vomiting.
She went home, finally, and the lady with CA ended up dying. Her daughter came back home from Stanford to be with her as she passed. She was gracious to the last moment of her life.
Lorie P.
755 Posts
The thing that get me with visiting hours is when visitors show up at midnight or later to see poor pt.
Some of our rooms are semi-private and several times I have had to tell the spouse to leave due to the other pt privacy. I mean how would you feel if you were in the room and the other lady's husband stayed all night?
Also from a patient's oint of veiw, visitors are sooo insensitive. I was on the cardiac floor, nitro drip going, HA from hell 10+ on pain scale, my room mate was 93, just wating to go home the next day. Her grandaughters were there, 3 cell phones ringing, room phone ringing, and the one gd broke out the hair dryer, curling iron and nail polish so that gran, could look presentable when they took out in the hall in a wheel chair!! Thenhad the nerve to ask me, if they were bothering me??&*&%&*&. I literally had tears running down my face and begging my husband to tell them to shut-up. Finially after 6 hrs of this, the visitors leave, only to have 4 more show up and say " oh just a little family reunion with mother!
Long story short, charge nurse had to through them out and then they complained that it wasn't fair. No what wasn't fair, was putting me ( age 41) with angina, nitro drip, with a 93 yo old that was being d/c'd the next day.
So yes, I dislike visitors after hours, unless the pt is dying or in a private room.