ICU visiting hours.. What is reasonable?

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Specializes in NICU.

My unit is currently in the process of changing our visiting hours. What does your ICU do? What do you feel is reasonable/fair/in the best interest of the patient and family?

Our visiting hours do not start until 10am and many families are upset because they miss the MD rounding. But our intensivists round early and I just can't imagine families in my rooms before I can even complete a full assessment.

Any ideas?

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Specializes in adult ICU.

Our families can come whenever. If they can get into the hospital (through the single door by the ED after hours) they can come to the ICU. I would say that we rarely get visitors before 8 AM though, and they usually don't stay later than 8 pm.

We don't have to restrict hours persay because we are VERY strict with our unit rules. We have ONE chair in the room in addition to the patient chair. That means if the patient is in the bed, there are only two spots for visitors to sit. We have a doorbell -- we aren't locked, but we read people the riot act if they don't buzz in -- and we kick people out for cares, procedures, x-rays, etc. There is NO eating in, NO cellphones, and NO sleeping in. It helps alot that we have a big waiting room right outside the ICU with puzzles, magazines, and a TV that families can more or less hang out in if they want to and be out of the way.

I don't think it is about hours so much as setting limits with the visitors and making it the culture of the place and sticking to it.

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Specializes in LTC, SICU,RNICU.

I work in SICU at a large hospital and we have four visiting times. 5-6am ,10-11am, 5-6pm and 9-10pm. These were just changed a few weeks ago. The 5-6 am one is a little tricky for me because it's the end of the shift and I like to fix my patient and do one last assessment before I hand my paitent off to the next nurse. I have heard that they want us to have open visiting hours. I can't imagine how this will go. We have lots of isolation patients, and neutropenic patients and lots of codes so I can't imagine the mayhem this will cause.

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Specializes in Med/surg, rural CCU.

The AACN recommends family at the bedside around the clock.

However- we don't have visitor hours- and I don't think there's a single nurse that works in our CCU that doesn't think we SHOULD have them. It's much easier to give an accurate report when there aren't family members floating around- either for that specific patient- or anothers.

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Specializes in adult ICU.

We don't allow visitors to mill around in the hallways either. If they aren't in the patient room, they need to leave and go to the waiting room. We have a lot of open bays so we do that for privacy reasons.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ER.

At my hospital our visitation hours for the ICU are 0830-1830 and then 2030-2230. This allows us time to give shift report and not be interupted by family members asking questions. I do however with we were more strict when visitors are there. Several of my co-worker allow family members to spend the night. I personally don't think it's helpful. They arent' sleeping because they're staring at the monitor and running to me when a number changes. I have started educating the family on the monitors and what the different numbers mean and that it's my job to interpret them. It they're going to visit, then visit. The only time I like family at the bedside around the clock is if I have an AMS patient and the family member keeps them calm.

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I think visitation should be in scheduled blocked times, for example 10-noon, 1400-1600, 2030-2230, 0400-0530. Or something similar. The patients are in the ICU for a reason. I know the family wants to be at the patients' bedside but, they need to rest for discharge care and the patient needs the proper rest activity periods to recover!

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The only time I like family at the bedside around the clock is if I have an AMS patient and the family member keeps them calm.

LOL! This so seldom happens! Usually, the family is trying to get my previously nicely sedated patient to respond to them . . . then, when the SBP hits 200 and the alarms are going off, they look at me and say "Why is that happening??"

And, I say, in my calmest voice, through gritted teeth, "because you just were trying to wake him up!!" It's times like that, that I wish we were issued Tasers!! (just kidding!)

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Specializes in Not too many areas I haven't dipped into.

The last ICU I worked in allowed visitors 24/7 in unlimited amounts. It was not unusual to spend the majority of your shift caring for the family instead of the patient in some situations. :eek:

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Specializes in Neuro Critical Care.

Our unit is open except for 6:30-8:30 and 1830-2030. This gives the shift coming in time to get report and an assessment done. I have mixed thoughts about open visitation, however, everyone has to keep the rules for all family members. That is our biggest problem; some nurses enforce them and some nurses don't. The nurses who don't enforce make it hard for those of us who do.

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Specializes in icu/er.

i'll never work in a open door unit, no way under the sun.

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Specializes in SICU.

our unit currently has open visitation. The only time we restrict visitors is between 0630-0730 and 1830-1930 to allot for shift change.

We are currently in the process of revamping our visiting hours. We are coming up with a plan, pamphlet and we are going to present it to administration in the following few weeks.

I hope the change is successful. I spend more time caring for the family and trying to make the family members understand that there is no way 6 of you can pile into the patient's room and expect me to try to continue to care for them!

*shakes head*

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