visitation in the critical care

Nurses General Nursing

Published

  1. How do you feel about open visiting in the critical care unit?

    • 0
      should be open at all times
    • 1
      open except for shift change
    • 7
      loosely restricted, RN decides visiting
    • 4
      restriced and enforced

12 members have participated

What is the visitation policy in your hospitals critical care unit?

1. open

2. restricted

How do you feel about opening vistation in the critical care unit?

1. agree, visitation should be open

2. disagree, visitation should be restricted

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

Visitation in our ICU is open -- relatively few restrictions, and if you try to restrict anyone loud or vocal, management will NOT support you. It doesn't work very well, and most nurses I know would GLADLY go back to the old "2 visitors for 5 minutes once every 2 hours" if we could. We were always free to be less restrictive, but if someone's visitors got out of hand, we could point to the rule and hustle them all out of there.

In the past couple of years we've had a visitor walking around with 16 oz. of single malt in a coffee mug and a 9mm Glock with which he planned to "solve all of her (his wife's) problems." He was arrested at midnight, out of jail by 0630 and back on the unit visiting (without the Glock but WITH a pocket knife) by 0830. (Administration believed that since he was from Montana, it must be OK. They carry guns in Montana).

Another visitor brought his large and viscious German Shepard up to visit "Dad," and when "Dad's" nurse objected to being threatened by the dog barricaded the door to the room shut with "Dad's" nurse on the outside. Unfortunately, "Dad" was pretty sick. Fortunately, another nurse got barricaded INSIDE the room by mistake. Unfortunately, the visitor wouldn't let her near "Dad." The visitor got arrested. He was also out of jail by the next morning, and the patient's wife went around to all of the nursing staff trying to guilt them into pressuring the nurses involved in the incident to drop the charges. I haven't heard about the trial, but the nurses were travelors and haven't been heard from since.

There was the boxer who liked to punch out the nurses. He was restrained, but every time his wife visited, she'd untie him. "If the nurses didn't try to get him to do stuff he didn't want to do, he wouldn't have to hit them."

Not only should visiting be restricted, I think the unit should be locked. If visitors can't behave, security can remove them.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Long Term Care.

I have always worked where there was restricted visiting. I would opt for open except at shift change. I believe as the nurse taking care of the patient we should have a right to decide if the visitors can stay or have to go based on our assessment of the patient's condition. However I have worked with too many nurses who plain do not like visitors and will restrict them for no reason except that they don't feel like putting up with any questions or anyone watching them.....

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Specializes in Everything except surgery.

I have worked in restricted and non restricted, and I definitely preferred the restricted, and always will! If their sick enough to be in ICU, then they're too dang sick to have so many visitors sitting at the bedside, preventing you from getting to the bed! I also don't like the fact that they want to come over to you, while you're in another pts. room, or on the phone with a doctor. One of my biggest pet peeves is having them walk around the unit, trying to see who is there!

We always allowed family members who came from far away, or who worked to come in off hours to see their love ones. But in the unrestricted units, I saw nothing but trouble, and all too many times, had to stop people who couldn't just stay at their loves ones bedside, but had to walk around the unit! Or wanted their b/p taken, or for you to answer questions about their own healths.

With many units taking more than the usual one or two pts., there is no time to interact with family membes as much as "some" would like you to.

I have spent too many times with two pts. who ran my butt off, and I don't have a problem with that. What I didn't need is to have to watch their family members also!

Edited to say: Nor did I have time for the idle chit chat, too many wanted to engage in. Question about love one, or the caring their receiving cool. But asking me about my family, etc..etc...I don't have time for!

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Visitation in this ICU is restricted. Two visitors for 30 minutes at 14:00 and two visitors 60 minutes at 19:00

I think the visitation should be open during all day but nurse decides when visiting must go out

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