boy, do i long for the days when visiting hours were 2-4 and 6-8!! just when did this ridiculous idea of "free for all" visiting based on having family and friends around for faster healing get so out of hand??
in my facility the hours are 0800-2100 hrs. there are no restrictions as to age/number of visitors/how long they can stay...etc...it is a free for all and i can not stand it. i spend a good part of my day working around visitors, answering and re-answering questions from visitors, asking visitors to step out of the room and then getting nasty comments from those visitors about my request.
patients have no privacy and the embarrassment that many have to endure because of visitors is unacceptable. preps/procedures have to be done with a parade of people in and out all day. am care and adls have to be accomplished with an audience of strangers. curtains are pulled for privacy only to have visitors pull them open or worse yet, step in anyway and then berate us for "keeping them out."
children are brought in and allowed to crawl on the floor. babies are in strollers and are not kept quiet or removed.
visitors want to know everything from soup to nuts about what is being done to their aunt, uncle, minister, neighbor, friend down the street. when we cite hipaa they raise the roof.
visitors ignore precaution /isolation signs and then bad mouth us when aunt tilley gets sicker. and then we wonder why mrsa and c-diff are spreading like wildfire.
please, someone....stop this madness! we can not do our jobs properly anymore...all in the name of patient satisfaction! hogwash! :angryfire
The children and babies have never been allow on any of the units I have been a patient on, so no problems. And I am surprised that hospitals allow this. The OP indeed has a facility that is out of control. Until the administration takes charge or is sued for millions, she will continue to have problems. I would quit.
Woody:twocents:
Right on Woody!
It's truly amazing how ADULTS who are visiting sick patients allow their babies and young children to carry on. The attitude, "Nobody is going to tell me what I can and cannot do with my children". This inflated sense of entitlement is unsettling.
I've seen all sorts of problems when kidz are allowed to run around this setting. Honestly, there doesn't seem to be any type of discipline or boundaries anymore. Parents seem all to happy to let the kids run around the hospital. It is disruptive and nobody, aside from the immediate family, thinks it is "cute".
Now, I understand if there is absolutely nobody in the entire world that will watch a child for a few hours for a visit, but when I see families rotating through visitation hours, non-stop, I don't understand why they can't take turns entertaining baby outside of the hospital.
Last year, a Nurse tripped over a baby that was allowed to crawl around on the floor. Well, you should have seen the reaction from the family! Good grief. They were acting like this Nurse came in the room, picked up the baby and drop-kicked it. The baby was fine. The nurse, on the other hand, was not. She hit her head, injured her back and broke her wrist. It was horrible.
Thankfully, the hospital compensated her very nicely for the incident. I heard she quit Nursing after that.
To add, I know people are going to say that patients have a right to see children. Fine. Perhaps the Hospital should set up 'Kid-Friendly' hours, but also implement rules of conduct as well as adult/child ratios per visitation.
Doctor and Charge Nurse doing rounds. Go into to see one pt. 6 year old child visiting. MD starts talking to pt - child turns to MD and says "Who the H*** are you?" . Can you believe it!!!!
We also had a nurse almost trip over a child - only he came crawling into the nsg station. I picked him up and had to GO LOOKING for his parents. They weren't even concerned that he had wandered away!
I am all for visiting hours. Yes, pts need their visitors. But I am tired of trying to give care to one pt while there are 5 visitor crowding around the bed next door.
My husband was recently in the hospital for a week, 5 days of which he was on respiratory isolation. Staff go in isolation room even less than other rooms, he was really lonely. The highlight of his day was when myself or the kids came to visit.
It really boosted his spirits. I do think, however, there should be a limit on visitors at any one time, and noise levels need to be kept to a minimum.
More than once I had to remind family to quite down, or send some to the waiting room as their were too many in a semi private room and explained that they could take turns, two at a time.
If patients or visitors become unruly, and won't listen to reason, we call a "code Yellow" - and people come from all over and just the physical show of 20 or more people surrounding the unruly person, usually quiets them down.
We had an extremely sad case where a child passed away. The father was extremely distraught, and began to pick up chairs and throw things, pushing staff, put a couple of holes in the wall. We all felt terrible, but no one was able to talk him down, so we had to call the police. We hated to do it, but he threw a chair at the police officer and ended up getting arrested. Even the officer felt terrible, as most of us were parents, and we completely understood this mans anger and grief, but we couldn't allow him to damage the hospital, staff or possibly himself. So he left us with no choice.
What really irks me, are the family members "looking" for mistakes. The ones that question everything you do for the patient, answer for the patient, and write everything down. As if our jobs aren't stressful enough. However, when they ask me my name, I spell it for them, if they are going to complain, I would like my name spelled correctly! LOL
We always say we believe in evidence-based practice. Has anybody ever seen credible research which indicates that people really do better with unlimited visiting hours or unlimited number of visitors or children allowed in the room? It all seems very anecdotal, and since visitors can and do impede nursing care, if hospitals are going to continue to push any visitor, any time, we should have some data to back up this practice.
Last year, a Nurse tripped over a baby that was allowed to crawl around on the floor. Well, you should have seen the reaction from the family! Good grief. They were acting like this Nurse came in the room, picked up the baby and drop-kicked it. The baby was fine. The nurse, on the other hand, was not. She hit her head, injured her back and broke her wrist. It was horrible.
Thankfully, the hospital compensated her very nicely for the incident. I heard she quit Nursing after that.
To add, I know people are going to say that patients have a right to see children. Fine. Perhaps the Hospital should set up 'Kid-Friendly' hours, but also implement rules of conduct as well as adult/child ratios per visitation.
That poor nurse. She gets hurt because someone brings a small child who is crawling on the floor and no one is watching it and she ends up injured with a broken wrist. It's just idiocy at it's finest.
I'm against babies and very young children visting unless it is under dire circumstances. Hospitals are no place for infants, toddlers and wee ones. I don't have a problem with a well behaved 12 year old but even that can be hard on the child because they can be scared and/or they're bored. Uf you do bring children use common sense and keep them with you and there for 15 minutes for a brief visit.
Generally family members are no problem. We have open visiting hours and to be honest some of the time visitors are a god send. Often family members are a big help regarding pt care (feeding, bathing, repositioning, etc.)
On the other hand I sometimes have a problem with loud visitors or non-stop questions when I'm giving meds. I have not found a good way to say "shhh.... Quiet until I'm finished ", w/o reducing the confidence the pt and family. I know most nurses can multi-task like there is not tomorrow and don't think twice about giving meds and chatting away. Most of the time I'm good with that, but there are other times I feel like pt safety is compromised. Periodically I will say something like "I will be glad to answer your questions when I finish administering Mr. Jones medications", and I usually get looks like I have horns coming out of my head. There probably a better way I can handle this.
i hear what your saying, but i have to admit that while i was in the hospital (10 days) my only bright time was when i had visitors. staff is so busy and sleep is so difficult that i really needed (and wanted) visitors. my infant son was in the hospital for 6 weeks when he was first born. a 2 hr 2 person visiting schedule would not have worked at all. there was no way dad and i would leave his side. i know its frustrating and i'll be walking in your shoes soon, but visitors are so important to patients. i agree there should be some guidelines (how many, volume control, etc), but loved ones are going to come and they're going to stay. this is our job, but it is the pts home for whatever length their stay is. i don't mean to upset anyone, i just wanted to say how i felt during my stay and my son's.
have to respectfully disagree probably because we have different perspectives. from mine-the patient is sick and in the hospital, it is not their home. my icu patients are very sick and sometimes don't have the energy to breathe and heal. two immediate family members, not friends, church folk and neighbors are more than enough. sometimes one family members stimulation shoots a heart rate up enough to drop a blood pressure.
despite our best efforts, a hospital is a dangerously contaminated building with the deadliest of germs. anyone under 12 has no need to be exposed to these dangers, let alone babies and toddlers.
because it is not the patients home, the visitors are not my guests. i do not need the additional worry of fetching beverages, blankets and snacks. i do not have the space or equiptment to make them a place to sleep. nor do i need to be crazy with worry as they touch, move and trip over equiptment, especially silencing my iv pumps "just trying to help"..
i believe that visitors benefit patients. i am not anti visitors. people in the community have less and less good sense these days with an over inflated sense of entitlement. we cannot expect all visitors to put the patients best intrest above their own. if firm rules are not in place the patient will be the one to suffer.
Specializes in FNP, Peds, Epilepsy, Mgt., Occ. Ed.
Last year, a Nurse tripped over a baby that was allowed to crawl around on the floor. Well, you should have seen the reaction from the family! Good grief. They were acting like this Nurse came in the room, picked up the baby and drop-kicked it. The baby was fine. The nurse, on the other hand, was not. She hit her head, injured her back and broke her wrist. It was horrible.
Thankfully, the hospital compensated her very nicely for the incident. I heard she quit Nursing after that.
It's a shame she didn't sue for negligence. Sue the family, that is!!
Specializes in FNP, Peds, Epilepsy, Mgt., Occ. Ed.
when my husband was in the hospital with ulcerative colitis, his roommate's visitors were always in their shared bathroom meaning he had to wait. when you're having upward of 30 stools a day, waiting is not always an option!
not only do i find the visitors' use of the shared patient bathroom inconsiderate, i find it just plain gross!! if i were the patient, i wouldn't want a bunch of people i didn't know using "my" bathroom.
as a patient, it was excrutiating for me to deal with my roommate's constant stream of very loud visitors with their burgers and fries (i was nauseated and npo), their big gulps (i was thirsty and npo) and their screaming children (i had a csf leak and the resulting headache). nor did the nurse ask my roommate's visitors to leave when i had to use the bedpan. it was excrutiating to try to urinate knowing that there were several strangers just on the other side of that very thin curtain, well within earshot.
when my husband was in the hospital with ulcerative colitis, his roommate's visitors were always in their shared bathroom meaning he had to wait. when you're having upward of 30 stools a day, waiting is not always an option!
what you and your husband had to go through is absolutely ridulous! no respect for your right to privacy and right to an environment condusive to healing. i have thankfully never been in a situation like this but i would be livid if either of these scenario's had happened to me.
since it appears most of the lax visiting hours and lack of restrictions are d/t the hospitals wanting to improve "customer service", maybe once patients themselves start complaining about these ridiculous free for all visiting policies, the hospitals will finally take some action.
I have also been a patient and been bothered by my roommate's visitors..I think the 2 visitors at a time for certain times of day is perfectly reasonable..I had the visitors for the other pt peeking into my area, using the pt bathroom to put on makeup(I had just gotten a bowel prep for colonoscopy, so I told the visitor to move, or her shoes would be pooped on..)and when my doc would come in to talk to me...there they were.So much for HIPAA!!
Being in the hospital is not a social occasion-the hospitals need to give the authority back to staff because the visitor situation is out of control.
I was thinking the exact same thing. I am an extremely private person and would be very distressed to know that some stranger who is not my doctor/nurse was listening in on my private medical info, or even was able to hear me use the bathroom/bedpan. I know for a fact that I would cite HIPAA and ask that the visitors be told to step out of the room.
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630 Posts
Right on Woody!
It's truly amazing how ADULTS who are visiting sick patients allow their babies and young children to carry on. The attitude, "Nobody is going to tell me what I can and cannot do with my children". This inflated sense of entitlement is unsettling.
I've seen all sorts of problems when kidz are allowed to run around this setting. Honestly, there doesn't seem to be any type of discipline or boundaries anymore. Parents seem all to happy to let the kids run around the hospital. It is disruptive and nobody, aside from the immediate family, thinks it is "cute".
Now, I understand if there is absolutely nobody in the entire world that will watch a child for a few hours for a visit, but when I see families rotating through visitation hours, non-stop, I don't understand why they can't take turns entertaining baby outside of the hospital.
Last year, a Nurse tripped over a baby that was allowed to crawl around on the floor. Well, you should have seen the reaction from the family! Good grief. They were acting like this Nurse came in the room, picked up the baby and drop-kicked it. The baby was fine. The nurse, on the other hand, was not. She hit her head, injured her back and broke her wrist. It was horrible.
Thankfully, the hospital compensated her very nicely for the incident. I heard she quit Nursing after that.
To add, I know people are going to say that patients have a right to see children. Fine. Perhaps the Hospital should set up 'Kid-Friendly' hours, but also implement rules of conduct as well as adult/child ratios per visitation.