PACU visitors

As a general rule, it is a bad idea most of the time.

Problems: no patient privacy- too much patient information is around and families wander. Patients are not feeling well- they often want fewer and shorter visits on the floors, why would they want people hovering when they are feeling pretty awful? Often a lack of physical space for them, too.

Exceptions: Kids or developmentally delayed adults. They need mom/dad, not Nancy Nurse. Depending on the age, they come in to visit or they come in and stay. Emergency surgeries, where the family hasn't seen the patient since before they got the call that told them the surgery was happening. If there will be a long wait for a bed on the floor. And, of course, the case by case basis. (One recent example- we let the new husband in to visit his wife after her D+C for a missed AB- first pregnancy. She needed her husband- nothing I could do for her. He didn't look at other patients and stayed at her bedside- we let him stay.) For translation if we can't get an interpreter.

One problem with the exceptions: other families in the waiting room see someone getting to come visit and then they all do. If an exception is to be made, it needs to be made clear to the family coming in that this is a brief visit (if that's the case) and the other families need to be told that there are occasional exceptions to the rule for clinical reasons.

Having worked in a pediatric hospital PACU, I can say that parent visitors in PACU does not work out well. First of all, many kids are crying and it is a wild area. Sometimes kids require physical restraint to protect themselves. This is not understood by some parents and can appear to be barbaric if not understood. Many times, children are more cooperative if parents are not present. Of course exceptions are always needed. Having a PACU full of parents would be a nightmare in my experience. Second stage post op is another story.