No visiting hours?

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One hospital in my area has no limitations on their visiting hours on Med/Surg units. Does anyone have any idea how this works out? When do the majority of people visit, on average? Do many stay into the night? Just curious. I am guessing they probably visit mostly 4-10 p.m.

Specializes in Pediatric Critical Care.
I personally never saw a doctor round later than 9 or 10 p.m., except for interns or residents may have popped in at the one teaching hospital at a later hour...but I only remember them doing that for patients with a more immediate problem. And that really is what I was getting at...problems with very late visits or late visitors. I don't mean the one person staying overnight, if they do...I mean a few people in the room making a little too much noise. I wondered if that was a problem for those without visiting hours.

Pedatric visiting hours are generally very open. In my pediatric ICU, visiting hours are 24/7, 3 visitors at the bedside at a time, and no children under age three (except special circumstances like end of life care or twin infant bonding).

There is very, very rarely a problem that cant be easily remedied by a gentle reminder to lower the noise or activity level. Day or night. I simply suggest that some of the visitors head to the waiting room for a bit, or remind them to try to lower their voices. Rarely does it become an issue.

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Specializes in Registered Nurse.
Pedatric visiting hours are generally very open. In my pediatric ICU, visiting hours are 24/7, 3 visitors at the bedside at a time, and no children under age three (except special circumstances like end of life care or twin infant bonding).

There is very, very rarely a problem that cant be easily remedied by a gentle reminder to lower the noise or activity level. Day or night. I simply suggest that some of the visitors head to the waiting room for a bit, or remind them to try to lower their voices. Rarely does it become an issue.

Thanks for the reply. It probably is rarely a problem on most "no limits" units. I guess I just imagine all the rowdies going to see their friends at midnight. LOL

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My family does not leave loved ones in the hospital alone over night. We insure that there is someone present at all times to advocate for the loved one even when they might be medicated or otherwise unable to adequately communicate their needs.

Errors made in the hospital setting are a big problem in this country. Errors are suggested by current studies to be the third leading cause of death in the USA.

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I do this with my family members also, and I have found it to be very necessary.

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The patients and their families pay your salary, not the for profit facility. We are told "this is the resident's home", and "the state" will write it in their report in one of their sneak attacks (when they inspect, which seems to be a revenue generating effort more and more) if you so much as forget to knock on the patient's door. If you have been giving that person meds for many years, they still expect you to pretend like you had some major head injury and check their name bands (probably scan their implants in the years to come), etc

I tend to agree. Unfortunately, that is their home. These people sacrificed a great deal to pay our salaries. As such, I am of the opinion that there should not be "visiting hours". What a crock when you think about it. Also, "smoke free" facilities?? I have been at facilities where many of the management maggots suck on those cancer sticks, yet despite it being the "resident's home", and all that other grandiose non-sense they speak of in their self righteous delusions of grandeur, they want to set "smoking times" on the people who pay our salaries or make it a "smoke free" facility.

Mind you, I don't smoke but my heart lays with freedom and the people who lost most of it that pay our wages. So when this control freak, a social worker, set the last smoking time at 700pm for the patient that I care about, I would take the lady out at 3am and she would tell me about her life, WWII, etc while she satisfied her nicotine itch. Again, I don't smoke, but am very much in favor of patient's rights and freedom. The dayshift witches at this place would come in with their box of doughnuts and cappuccinos and have an hour long complaining session about everyone else while I never got to sit down, let alone take a break as I was the only one on the midnight shift. One really vile woman I will only refer to as "nurse Ratchet" (she was worse than that one from One Who Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest) assumed the title of unit manager (which nobody gave her) started finding the time to count this poor old woman's cigarettes. I only worked there PT, and because I cared about this woman as I got to know her, could not be there to do what I wanted to do....buy a pack of her brand with my own money and give them to her anyways. I refused to violate what I feel are her rights and as a result, have been banned from that rather large, greedy corporation. At least I will go to my grave knowing I wasn't willing to violate her rights for a select bunch of nasty, vile, angry, controlling witches.

So there should be no set visiting hours. If these sick or disabled people could have friends or loved ones visit 24/7, that right does not end once they enter a hospital or nursing home. Again, just my humble opinion

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I mis-read the title "No Visiting Hours?" to mean no visitors. Like some high-end restaurants are advertising No Children so as not to ruin a nice dining experience, I thought now there are hospital units offering a No Visitors option.

I work in the PACU where I have had more than one patient (usually female) say, "I don't want anyone to see me like this" Sometimes they mean without a scarf, make-up, teeth or just out of sorts with bed-head but they obviously see visiting as a social entertainment experience. And most visitors have no clue as to how to be any kind of support person. They bring in their food, phobias, expectations and other assorted nonsense and force a stressed person to put on a show for their benefit. Whether it's to play the sick person or the stoic survivor it's a ridiculous ritual I am happy to avoid when possible.

Due to privacy laws we can limit the number of non-essential personnel in the PACU. On the evening shift when there may be only one patient in PACU I frequently offer the option to the patient for me to go get the visitors. They take me up on it about half the time. I was particularly saddened when one 40-something woman was descended upon by her mother who worked in the nearby pre-op unit. I escorted the mother out to the waiting area and said the patient needed some more time to wake up and I wanted to focus my attention on her. The patient thanked me and said, " I really don't want her in here". I could see she doesn't have much control over how intrusive her mother is.

Hospitalization is not the social event it once was.

Off topic but do you have a list/website? To be clear I have two toddlers and it sucks to hire a sitter for date night only to.....you get it.

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Leaving A loved one to watch over a patient is one thing. I recently had a patient with 20+ visitors in the building 24/7 including a newborn and several school aged children. They "moved in" including blankets, phone chargers and two large crock pots. It left other family members with nowhere to sit or visit. They were also loud and their brats broke the vending machine trying to steal from it. Our visitors policy is being revamped as I type.

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You lost me on this one. It sounds like you believe a primary caretaker should be present when the physician rounds but if the physician doesn't round during posted visiting hours, you enforce the no visitors rules and don't allow the caregiver to be present.

Yeah that's what happens, but I don't like it. It's the rule in our unit that visitors are only allowed during certain times, and I've gotten in trouble for letting family members hang around until the doctor comes. Some docs even purposefully round at that time so they don't have to talk to family. If I can, I'll tell them to go to the waiting room because the family wants to talk about the plan of care and ask some questions.

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I work on a Med/Surg floor. We have open hours. No restrictions. There isn't even a rule on who can spend the night or how many. I've had patients' rooms that I couldn't get around in because so many family members were sleeping on the floor. When I've brought it up to the management, the reply has been "we don't want to upset the family". yeah, but you want me to do the job you hired me for, yes? I can't do it with 10 family members in the room, when the patient's husband has left her 3 year old and she can't get out of bed to run after it (if she could, she'd be home, yes?).

What irritates me the most about is the family members who feel the need to tell me, in detail, exactly what they don't like about the care their loved one received last month at a different hospital OR the family members who press the call light continually to tell me THEY need a soda, a snack, a pillow, another blanket, to know what channel such-and-such show is on (I'm working, I don't have time to find tv shows, let alone watch them). How about the patient on a PCA, clearly marked "For PATIENT use only", that the family has been told repeatedly not to touch, and they've managed to OD her/him. Then, they're mad because I narcaned their mom/sister/daughter/son/father/brother and now the patient is in pain? I have family members who come and go all night (I'm a night shift worker), waking the patient continually.

I think you just hit a nerve! I long for the past when we could say "Please leave, visiting hours are over" or at least, "Only one person may spend the night"

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Specializes in Registered Nurse.
Leaving A loved one to watch over a patient is one thing. I recently had a patient with 20+ visitors in the building 24/7 including a newborn and several school aged children. They "moved in" including blankets, phone chargers and two large crock pots. It left other family members with nowhere to sit or visit. They were also loud and their brats broke the vending machine trying to steal from it. Our visitors policy is being revamped as I type.

Yeah. That has got to be bad. I'm thinking it's not often that happens, but still...wouldn't want to have to deal with it without a rule/policy in place.

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Specializes in Labor & Delivery, Maternity, Pediatrics.

I work labor and delivery (and postpartum). I wish we had (flexible) visiting hours! Our moms are exhausted and need to rest but every friend and family member "needs" to come see the baby. I try to suggest that they have most of their visitors come at the same time so it's not a parade of people all day. Breastfeeding is delayed because visitors are in the room. There is SO MUCH patient education to do with new parents and it's hard to fit it in there with visitors coming and going and trying to balance letting the pt sleep. I'm happy to do education with family in the room (so that the baby's grandparents aren't giving dated advice) but it's hard when friends are there. I also want to respect that they're there to visit and be social, not be talked at by a nurse. We only allow one support person to spend the night because there really isn't enough room for more than that. I had to make the father of a baby sleep in the waiting room because the pt's mother was controlling (and a super jerk) and manipulated her daughter into saying she'd prefer the one person to be her mom. Terrible.

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The trouble sometimes is that in older facilities, the rooms are not designed for visitors.

Some of the older ICUs in my hospital don't have rooms, just curtains between the beds. The patient will then get transferred out to the older part of the hospital that has semi private rooms with barely enough room to stick a recliner in.

When my son was in a newly built PICU a couple of years ago, I was amazed about how thoughtful the design was to integrate visitors. The couch folded out into a small bed for me. There was a parent lounge where I could have a snack from the mini-kitchen staffed by volunteers or make a phone call. In peds, they encouraged me to stay and made that stay so pleasant in an environment that was built to accommodate visitors.

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Specializes in Hospice.
In my experience, for many people it might as well have been a magical fairy wand! An announcement would be made overhead....ignored....second announcement....ignored....nurse/aide makes rounds, extends "personal invitation" to leave.....visitor still there....second request from staff to please allow the patients their rest.....security sent in.....visitor leaves at least an hour late, after complaining that "no one told them". :no:

You would be correct for today's generation, but back in the day, no one gave the Head Nurse any lip- those women were FEARSOME lol. I got my tonsils out in 1961, and my parents pretty much handed me over at the door and then came back three days later to pick me up.

Was I scarred for life not having Mom and Dad there? Nope, was in a four bed ward and it was party time!!

The only thing I wondered about, even at 5, was why I had to have an enema the night before when my tonsils were at the other end!!

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