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!
I generally have no problem with visitors staying with their loved ones... unless it's a semi and the other patient objects or is disturbed by their presence. And if they DO stay in a semi, then they must sit in a chair at bedside out of the way. No cots allowed. That not only breaks fire code, but makes it more difficult for staff to get to the patients to care for them.
Now my vent... had a patient in a private room with two visitors who stayed the night. They would not move out of the way, the patient got out of bed several times during the night on her own (we caught her as she was going back to bed--- IV disconnected and alarming and the two visitors snoring away). I spent most of my night with this patient, assuring she was not injured only to have the manager of the floor come to me this morning to discuss her "lack of proper care" during the night. I was so furious, I could barely speak. Seems that another family member, who was NOT present in the room and who works at this hospital complained to the manager AFTER jumping MY ass about things that never happened. Then the manager jumped ME. I explained to the manager what occurred on my shift and where the visitor was wrong. I don't think she believed me and frankly I don't give a damn. I'd heard when I started here that the manager never stood up for her staff and instead of investigating an issue, would jump the staff without hearing all sides. Now I see that is true.
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.
That kind of crap really ticks me off. NOWHERE else do people act like this. Go out to any other public place, and people (for the most part) act reasonable and considerate. Yet get them in a hospital, and all of a sudden they are uncivilized jackasses who assume we are there to jump at their every beck and call. I DO take care of visitors as well as patients, but the patients come FIRST. So many don't seem to get this. And if I hear a visitor tell a nurse "we're paying your salary" one more time....
From a patient's perspective, I have never wanted visitors other than my husband while I was in hospital. My sister seems to think that bringing her 4 children in the room with her is a good thing. Wrong. It's not good for me, and it's not good for my roomie. I'm SICK! And no, I don't feel like entertaining visitors while tied to an IV and drugged out of my mind.
The worst visitor episode was my first hospitalization when I was 17. My roommate's brother sexually assaulted me while I was heavily sedated following surgery. I could barely speak, and the only reason he stopped was because the nurse came in. She didn't witness the act because I was on the far side of the room behind the curtain. Turns out that the brother was bringing sister some weed to smoke, and the nurse smoked it with them!
All I wanted to do was get the h*ll out of that place, and I was too scared and embarrassed to say anything.
The worst visitor episode was my first hospitalization when I was 17. My roommate's brother sexually assaulted me while I was heavily sedated following surgery. I could barely speak, and the only reason he stopped was because the nurse came in. She didn't witness the act because I was on the far side of the room behind the curtain. Turns out that the brother was bringing sister some weed to smoke, and the nurse smoked it with them!
Are you serious? I just cannot believe that a NURSE would smoke weed at the hospital with a patient and the family:uhoh3:
Anyway, I don't feel that hospitals should limit visiting hours. I always say that the best medicine for my patient is the love of their family. I use to tell spouses that they could stay in the lounge, but not in the room. HOWEVER, if there was a female/male family member (same sex as patient) and only one, they may stay in the room. I agree that if it were my mother you would pull me out of that room kicking and screaming. I know what happens at hospitals and how busy the nurses are every shift.
Oh this is a old horse thats been rode before. I dont like open visitation hrs in a icu.. 90% of the time it causes trouble and takes the nurse away from pt care to meet the needs of the family or visitor. The rooms are not big enough for pt, vents, iv poles and some 3rd cousin in a recliner or cot and me, I don't have the time to make sure the visitor has a warm blanket or explain every action I take in simple 3rd grade terms to you every time I walk in the room. If you are sick enough to be in icu you don't need someone hovering over you keeping you awake with the tv and cell phones all night. I read post that people stayed in their loved ones rooms and it was fine, no trouble. Well ya'll are the exception cause you know how to act in a room, the rest of the non nursing public think it's a place to hang out watch free tv play with the bed and eat the pt's food. And you can't make an exception and let one person stay longer than the rest cause you'll be called a racsist and bigot.. Now the AACN likes open door policy, and sure it'll work fine in big icus where you have security right there to roust visitors out when they need to be, but in smaller units were you take care of more than 1-2 pts per nurse, you don't have the time or man power to be responsible for a bunch of visitors in the unit. You know, it would be different if the visitor got in the room sat in the corner and stayed out of the way, sure ask a question every now and then, but don't ask me to explain to you why we are getting a temp reading or some trival simple nursing task. But to bad there is no such visitor. Now at our unit we'll fudge alittle and let people in past visiting hrs at times, but we do enforce our hrs, cause we have to. Thank god our unit medical director likes haveing visiting hrs, I don't think i'd work at a plce that had the open door policy. Besides what does the AACN know, bunch of bean counting, paper writing research has beens..
Well ya'll are the exception cause you know how to act in a room, the rest of the non nursing public think it's a place to hang out watch free tv play with the bed and eat the pt's food. .
You've hit the nail on the head there! The non-medical public doesn't understand half of what we are doing.
And then there are the people that want you to check their blood pressure, temp, give then something for their headache and so forth. I've had family members stay in some situations - dying pts or someone who is confused and keeps trying to get out of bed. Thats fine. But staying just because their loved one is in the hospital is a bit much. And before people jump all over me, I have had loved ones in the hospital and have always respected visiting hours.
I think that we will have to agree to disagree on this one. I have a dear friend from nursing school who works Cardiovascular intensive and recovers open hearts. She is a whiz at what she does, but as soon as the patient opens their eyes, puts on the call light, or family asks a question she wants them out of there. She doesn't want to "deal" with that. I guess some of us are just better equiped to do holistic care, and care that includes the family, than others. It doesn't make anyone better nurses, just different. I will say this, as the hospitals do more and more "customer satisfaction" policy, you can bet that more private rooms and open visiting hours will be at the top of the list. As far as supplying blankets, pillows and such for the family, I think that is just a basic act of kindness that will go a very long way. B/P's and headache medicine are a different matter entirely.
Specializes in Spinal Cord injuries, Emergency+EMS.
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.
there are and should be different rules for different clinical areas
e.g. in the UK
-adult, general areas - set visiting times , generally enforced up to a point unless there's a good reason not to - and visting outside the scheduled hours depends on permission from Nursing staff
- paed areas - pretty much unrestricted visiting for parents ( or others with parenterla responsibility) , unless they are threatening, intoxicated etc... limited visting hours for others
- maternity areas - unlimitged visting for dad ( and /or the birthing partner) very restricted numbers and times for others
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.
this sounds like something for the professional management structure in the hospital to take lay managers to task over with - this means the director of nursing, the CNMs/Matrons/ unit nurse managers as well as the staff with the support of the medical director and the lead AHPs ...
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.
perhaps becasue the rules are either not there or not enforced... sand consequently you are scoring badly from some people - the people who can't get any peace and have their stay disrupted by the noise and mess of other patient's visitors
i'm of the school of thought that strike a balance and have the balance accepted by all involved from the hospital side is the route to go ...
Because I work in OB, we have strict visiting policy ofr some and not so strict for others, Labor and delivery limit is 3, no changes until delivery, then the world can come in, after visiting hours on ob the limit is one, thry to make the three people who were there for the delivery understand it is now time to go. Then of course we are a locked unit so we have to let all visitors in and out, and the smokers will come in and out 50 times a night, so up and down the hall then to the door bell, never get anything done for opening the door. And you just have to love the ones that say I'm just stepping out for a second, i will be right back, becuase they know if we walk away from the desk they will have to wait til we come back. And the dirty looks we get when we are the only one on the unit helping a patient, often the one they want into to see and they have to wait a few minutes to get the door open
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!
EmmaG, RN
2,999 Posts
I generally have no problem with visitors staying with their loved ones... unless it's a semi and the other patient objects or is disturbed by their presence. And if they DO stay in a semi, then they must sit in a chair at bedside out of the way. No cots allowed. That not only breaks fire code, but makes it more difficult for staff to get to the patients to care for them.
Now my vent... had a patient in a private room with two visitors who stayed the night. They would not move out of the way, the patient got out of bed several times during the night on her own (we caught her as she was going back to bed--- IV disconnected and alarming and the two visitors snoring away). I spent most of my night with this patient, assuring she was not injured only to have the manager of the floor come to me this morning to discuss her "lack of proper care" during the night. I was so furious, I could barely speak. Seems that another family member, who was NOT present in the room and who works at this hospital complained to the manager AFTER jumping MY ass about things that never happened. Then the manager jumped ME. I explained to the manager what occurred on my shift and where the visitor was wrong. I don't think she believed me and frankly I don't give a damn. I'd heard when I started here that the manager never stood up for her staff and instead of investigating an issue, would jump the staff without hearing all sides. Now I see that is true.
Right now I'm so angry I'm shaking.