Hospital that bans family members

Nurses Relations

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Normally I don't mind family members that much however after a recent string of AWFUL, rude, demanding family members I'm feeling a little jaded toward them right now. A co-worker sharing in my frustration mentioned that she used to work in an ICU in Alabama that only allowed family members between the hours of 8-830. I"m assuming that was both am and pm although I didn't clarify. Granted ICU's tend to have more strict visitor policies then other department so maybe the rest of the hospital was different. But I thought to myself 'what a magical place, I would drive out of my way and take a pay cut just to work there.' So that got me thinking, does anyone know of any hospitals more specifically ICU's in and around Austin, TX that have similar visitor policies? Also, what do you think about that?

We do allow 10minute visits at the hour in our PACU. What I find annoying is that the family that just HAD to see the patient , is looking around the unit to see what's happening in the other bays..or the first thing out of their mouths is Are you in pain...what do you think..just had surgery!

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Specializes in Palliative.

When H1N1 was the big scare, my hospital drastically limited the number of visitors allowed in L&D and mother/baby (until that point it included anyone and everyone the mother wanted). They got a tonne of positive feedback from mothers who frankly didn't want to entertain all these well meaning people, but of course knew it would hurt their feelings to say so. It took the onus off the patient, and they really appreciated that. It was a surprise given all the talk about how much better it is for patients to have open visitation--but the policy became permanent.

The rest of the hospital still has official visiting hours, but management has gone to a more relaxed style and made it quite clear they won't support us if a visitor complains about being asked to leave. On medicine, this is sometimes a good thing, but usually it is not. We've had to move patients because of their roommate's loud family members--some of the patients have actually nearly come to blows over noisy visitors. I was also banned from a patient's care for having the nerve to ask him and his visitor not to visit with the lights on at 4 am while his roommate was trying to sleep. He was mobile, and there was no reason they couldn't leave the room. And we had been told point blank that we had to allow this family to stay all night already.

Other than that we've had drunk family members show up on the unit at night who wouldn't have made it past security a few years ago. We've gone in to do something with a patient to find them having sex with their visitors. We've had visitors who it turned out were wanted on Canada wide warrants and have done drug deals with patients at the nursing station. Then we get security...And that's beside all the demanding and annoying visitors. It's increasingly becoming a problem that management refuses to deal with.

Thing is when the hours were more strict, there were always reasonable exceptions. And less grief both for us and the patients. We used the rules as guidelines to be enforced on the people that actually needed them. They allowed us to be the "bad guy" when we had to--sorry it's the hospital rules--but to also make exceptions when it was prudent.

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Yeah, let's ban the nearest and dearest from their loved one's side because they annoy us. We'd all appreciate that when those we care for are ill.

:sarcastic:

No, lets just ban the nearest and dearest who behave inappropriately and annoy the nursing staff. Those who are respectful and self-sufficient can visit. I'm not worried about banning the inappropriate visitors because those who I want around me when I'm sick would never behave that way. I certainly haven't when my family was ill.

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Working the NOC shift will significantly lower your exposure to family members...

But will significantly raise your exposure to CRAZY family members.

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I work in an inpatient pharmaceutical research company. NO VISITORS, locked units, no phone calls (other than to their cells), strict bedtime and subjects have to obey all the rules or risk getting kicked out (aka not paid complete payments). We get some interesting characters but for the most part, its is the best job ever. Look into research companies in your area!

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Most ICU's have limiter visiting hours, usually 15 minutes avery 2 hrs or so, if the patient is stable. Reg hospital rooms don't generally limit that tightly, but many limit the number of visitors at one time. Why are the families being so.demanding? Do they understand the patient's condition and treatment? Are they scared? Are thete famlyissues causing grief, tension, embarrassment? Sometimes evaluating the why can reduce the denands and seeming unreasonableness of patients and families.

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I work in NICU, we have strict visiting hours of 1100-1300 and 16-2000. Our parents have 24/7 access except during nursing shift change. All children 3 and under are banned, no children except siblings and only 2 visitors per baby and that includes the parents. Visiting hours are strictly enforced and anyone that is aggressive or violent to staff or families is trespassed. That includes the parents. Staff and parents appreciate the lack of distractions. much better than our previous open ward.

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Specializes in Med-surg, telemetry, critical care..

To those snapping their fingers fo coffee I usually just said "I'll tell your waiter." Snarky? Of course! But they usually never tried to pull that crap again.

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I work in an inpatient pharmaceutical research company. NO VISITORS, locked units, no phone calls (other than to their cells), strict bedtime and subjects have to obey all the rules or risk getting kicked out (aka not paid complete payments). We get some interesting characters but for the most part, its is the best job ever. Look into research companies in your area!

Interesting, thanks for the tip.

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I work in an ICU. Visitors are supposed to be limited to 2 people at a time, no children, and no one past 8pm. My co-workers and I are always happy to make exceptions IF it is for a legitimate reason like: The patient is really unstable or an imminent death, the patient is confused and comforted by the sight of a familiar face, the patient has a planned surgery coming up, the patient is a new admission, etc.

For me, those are all good enough reasons to let the family flood the room with 20 visitors or stay well into the night. But when there is no good reason to make an exception and visitors insist on breaking the rules? It drives me nuts. And its happening A LOT.

I have caught visitors bringing children into isolation rooms. I had a patient with cdiff and the daughter was told not to bring her children but I walk in and find an infant in the room!! She had already been told that she was endangering her children by bringing them in the room. I passed it onto social work and I told her we were going to start locking the patient's room so she can't get in without our permission (I can't actually do this but she didn't need to know that.....)

I saw another visitor pushing the button to silence her mother's monitor alarms because "I am trying to get some sleep and that thing keeps making noise". I told her she cannot do that. Later on I saw her doing it again. I kicked her out of the room. She went up the chain to complain about me saying I was incredibly rude and that she "has a right" (lately I hate hearing these words) to be in the room. I got an email with a list of "associate values" and was told I needed to re-read and reconsider how I treat visitors.

I think I need to look for a position in a research facility like one of the previous posters mentioned!

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Specializes in ICU.

I saw another visitor pushing the button to silence her mother's monitor alarms because "I am trying to get some sleep and that thing keeps making noise". I told her she cannot do that. Later on I

saw her doing it again. I kicked her out of the room. She went up the chain to complain about me saying I was incredibly rude and

that she "has a right" (lately I hate hearing these words) to be in the room. I got an email with a list of "associate values" and was told I needed to re-read and reconsider how I treat

visitors.

To get rid of disruptive visitors:

Set up the room.

On day one turn the volume up (just enough to keep them

awake )on all equipment alarms. Use the lock function on IV

pumps. Or locking cases. Suggest they sleep elsewhere.

Tell no one about how you are using psychological warfare .

Sleep deprive them into leaving. Or at least sacking out in the

waiting room. It's crude but effective.

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I work in an ICU. Visitors are supposed to be limited to 2 people at a time, no children, and no one past 8pm. My co-workers and I are always happy to make exceptions IF it is for a legitimate reason like: The patient is really unstable or an imminent death, the patient is confused and comforted by the sight of a familiar face, the patient has a planned surgery coming up, the patient is a new admission, etc.

For me, those are all good enough reasons to let the family flood the room with 20 visitors or stay well into the night. But when there is no good reason to make an exception and visitors insist on breaking the rules? It drives me nuts. And its happening A LOT.

I have caught visitors bringing children into isolation rooms. I had a patient with cdiff and the daughter was told not to bring her children but I walk in and find an infant in the room!! She had already been told that she was endangering her children by bringing them in the room. I passed it onto social work and I told her we were going to start locking the patient's room so she can't get in without our permission (I can't actually do this but she didn't need to know that.....)

I saw another visitor pushing the button to silence her mother's monitor alarms because "I am trying to get some sleep and that thing keeps making noise". I told her she cannot do that. Later on I saw her doing it again. I kicked her out of the room. She went up the chain to complain about me saying I was incredibly rude and that she "has a right" (lately I hate hearing these words) to be in the room. I got an email with a list of "associate values" and was told I needed to re-read and reconsider how I treat visitors.

I think I need to look for a position in a research facility like one of the previous posters mentioned!

It sounds as though you do not consider that making an exception for a supportive family member (who the patient wishes to be present) to stay 24/7 to support the patient is reasonable. While I understand that you do not make the rules, evidence shows that open ended visitation from a supportive family member is beneficial for both patients and family members, and improves patient safety. Since you are an ICU nurse, I suggest googling the AACN's statement on "Family Presence: Visitation in the Adult ICU." In my area, hospitals have instituted 24/7 visitation in accordance with CMS guidance; this includes the ICU, with the exception of a brief period of time during shift changes.

While you mentioned the problems you encountered with family members behavior, and told the family members what not to do, even "kicking" one family member out for a repeat offense, you did not mention that you tried to explain to the family why their behavior was not appropriate in the patient care setting, and that you explained the behavior that you desired from the family. If you did not indeed do this, I suggest in future that you do so, and give family members a chance to co-operate once they have the opportunity to understand why you wish for them to refrain from certain behaviors such as, to use your examples, not silencing the pumps, and not bringing children into isolation rooms. Without explanations of the harm these behaviors can cause, how can family members understand why these behaviors are not appropriate? Going just by what you have written in your post, I can understand why you were told to re-read the list of "associate values" and re-consider how you treat visitors.

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