Visitors' Policy/Visiting Hours

[Zee_RN]

Our 18-bed medical/surgical ICU unit is having difficulty with our visitors following policy. We are trying revamp our system to best suit the needs of patients, staff and visitors. I'd like input from other units regarding their policies.

- Do you have set visiting hours? Are they enforced by staff?

- Are visitors required to call into the unit before entering?

- Are visitors able to freely enter and exit the unit at will (i.e., do they have to be "buzzed" in; are your doors locked)?

- Do you have a waiting room staffed with a volunteer or staff member to answer questions or direct visitors?

- Are there any specials amenities in the waiting room that make it more pleasant for visitors?

Our visitors tend to stream in and out of our unit (which has 2 unlocked entrances) and have walked into sterile procedures, codes and hygiene-times without notice. Staff have practically given up trying to enforce (encourage?) visitors to adhere to policy (4 visiting times per day, 1/2 hour each; 2 people per room; call before entering; no children under 14). There are always special circumstances, of course, where we encourage family members to be at the bedside, such as when we are terminally weaning a patient. Your input is greatly appreciated!

[mdslabod]

to Peg RN YOur unit sounds like one my DAd was in in Cleveland. I felt like I was going to visit a prison inmate instead of my father. We had to wait for security to give out passes at the designated times and could only stay for 20 minutes or so. During that time, no one talked to us. It was awful. We finally had him tranfered to another hospital.

[Janet Barclay]

Hi All,

This is a touchy subject, with a million different opinions and rationales for each side of the equation. Our policy is, open visitin 24 hrs a day within reason, limited to two at a time, and at the discretion of the nurse. To avoid the 50 phone calls a day, we ask the families to elect a "spokesperson" who will disseminate information to the rest of the family. Believe it or not, this usually works. Visitors are discourages from being in the room around shift report and rounds times, but encourages to be there the rest of the time. This, of course, excludes people with ICP problems.

We ask that only immediate family visit, but are open if the family wants someone there, or if the patient is alert enough to give consent.

I should divulge that on my unit, only three out of 21 nurses have two patients and the rest are 1:1, because, of course, that makes a difference.

We believe that the fmaily is deserving of as much care as the patient, though that sometimes gives us a bum rash:p .

Visitors must call in via intercom to make sure that timing is ok, and 99.9% comply with the rules.

We neither police, nor do we cotrol visitors and that seems to work, for the most part, just fine.

sorry this was a long one

[tbearrn]

I work in a 17 bed ICU/CCU with Open Heart Recovery incorporated into it. We have 3-1/2 hours visiting times and 2 1 hour visiting times. This seems to work really well when the nurses enforce it and families stick to it. We have had lots of problems with families who abuse the system. This week, we started a new policy that family members must stick to the visiting hours (except in extreme cases like terminal weaning or a dying pt) and have installed a direct-line "bat phone" from the waiting room to our unit so family members can call at any time to check on their loved ones. We will soon be installing keypads at the front doors of the unit so that people can only access the unit during visiting hours or when otherwise deemed appropriate by the nurse. We also have a family representative for each pt assigned when the pt comes into the unit. That person is the only one that we will release information about the pt's condition to over the phone from an outside line. We instruct all others who call about the pt to contact the family rep. This has cut down tremendously on the time we spend answering calls about pts and directing traffic. Hope this helps.