Family member in room at night

[cicatrixx15]

What's your opinion of a family member staying in the patient's room overnight and during the day? Helpful or in the way?

When I had one of my knee surgeries years ago, my mom stayed in the room with me overnight. When I had to get up and go to the bathroom she helped me up and helped me go to the bathroom.

She also stayed in the room with my grandmother when she was in the hospital in poor health. We took shifts so there was just usually one of us in there with her. We helped her go to the bathroom and helped her wipe and such. Is this helpful or in the way? When I stayed I usually just sat and read or studied in the corner. She's also kind of wacko, and I think we were sort of a buffer between her and the staff. And she has a really bad German accent that a lot of people can't understand. We also wanted to be around when the doc came around. We never knew when the doctor would come by, so if we wanted to talk to him we had better be around.

Just wanted some opinions on the matter.

[Kashia, ASN, LVN]

Supportive~ Therapeutic~ and much much Safer :)

[Zookeeper3]

yes, especially if my patient is confused or anxious. Keeping my patient awake, being over exhausted and nutty, and demanding unreasonable expectations to the point it affects my other patients care will result in ANY family member leaving. I don't care who you know orwhat the doctor promised.

[TDCHIM]

I can't comment professionally, but I can say from personal experience that having a family member there can make a huge positive difference to the patient involved. Obviously, if the family member is just agitating the patient or seriously negatively impacting his/her care, that's a different story.

When my husband had a terrible care crash several years ago, he nearly died and ended up spending a week and a half in the hospital (3 days in the ICU). It was the first time he'd ever been in a hospital for anything, he'd had a major head injury (along with a lot of other massive injuries - head-on collision between truck and his car = truck won) and he was scared out of his mind, as well as really confused. I lived in the hospital the whole time and it went a long way towards being able to help and reassure him. In addition, he needed help dealing with things because of the head injury. The hospital sent somebody from billing up a couple of hours after he'd been sent back to his room after one of his surgeries to demand how he was planning to pay! He had no insurance at the time because he'd just switched jobs and we couldn't afford COBRA. It was unbelievable. So I dealt with it, because he was still pretty out of it.

I tried hard to stay out of the way and helped with getting little things like water and ice. The nurses were great, showed me where to get a few minor things, and didn't seem to mind that I was there all the time. He needed my help and I was thankful the hospital let me stay (and thankful that almost the entire hospital was made up of private rooms!), because he would have had a much harder time and might well have taken longer to recover to the point of discharge without having someone he trusted there at all times.

[HollyHobby]

I used to work in an ICU with very strict visiting hours. The only time anyone was allowed to stay the night was if the patient was under age 18 (then one parent could stay) or actively dying. There was no visitation at night, and only two people could visit at a time for a half hour during certain daytime hours.

We nurses would get written up if we made any exceptions. The family members could be very sneaky and slip into the room when the nurse was with another patient; I was written up quite a few times for that, even though I had no way to control or even know when visitors were sneaking around.

This system set up a definite Us vs Them mentality. The families hated the nurses because we were always trying to get them to leave and because there was no time to interact with them to explain what was going on. We resented the families because they were constantly pushing their limits and we had to spend so much time just enforcing the rules.

Now I work in an ICU that has open visitation. There are no rules, but the nurse always has the authority to restrict visitors. Some families have to be restricted because they cause the patient more harm than good. Usually I can make them understand why certain behavior is unacceptable, like trying to wake up a vented patient that I'm trying to keep sedated, but if they don't stop I'll make them leave. I also kick out anyone who tries to bring a baby onto the unit, because that's just plain stupid. Especially when they let the baby crawl on the floor.

I'll also make rules restricting how many visitors can be in the room at a time. There have been a few times when I've had to push family out of the way in order to code a patient. If I can't get to the IV pumps or the vent, something has to change.

Overall, having family around causes much more work for the nurses. I have to spend a lot more time explaining things, teaching, and helping with the family's psychosocial needs, but I think that's one of the most rewarding things I can do. I don't allow family members to give patient care (except tiny things, like washing the patient's face) because there is too much liability there. I would never allow a visitor to help a patient ambulate, pull a patient up in bed, or watch the patient to keep him from falling.

On the other hand, there have been many times when the family is very helpful, especially if the patient is confused. Just having the family member sit near the bed and talk to the patient can be what the patient needs most. I've called family in the middle of the night and asked them to come in.

Most times, I prefer the unlimited visitation. There is so much less hostility on all sides, and it's almost always better for the patient. But I like having the autonomy to limit visitation if that's in my patient's best interest.