Comments on: Visiting times in the ICU – are they necessary?

By: d

Sat, 02 Apr 2011 22:06:32 +0000

its crazy about shift changes as the patient may need the information told to there family member that is in the room they need toask the family member if they are comfortable tell that person the information that is in the room as it maybe ahusband or wife that needs to know and instead of them asking questions later of the nurses they already know as not to bother the nurses and if there not walking around out side the room during shift change then they wouldn’t know about other patients only there family member

By: d

Sat, 02 Apr 2011 22:00:43 +0000

ithink it is up to the indivael them selfs as i personal have been there and am going though it again with a family member they are comfortable with me being in icu with them all night i don’t keep the patient up the nurses coming in 24 /7 i understand the need to check on there patient but they say the family member is keeping the patient from getting rest and i know some cases maybe different from others but i never kept them from getting rest and if they needed some that i could do instead of the nurses they wouldn’t have to call the nurses and they could work on other patients that needed more of there time.

By: kathleen

kathleen — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 14:05:22 +0000

Not all the new Daea supports open visiting in the ICU. Not All famillies are there to support the family member or have an understanding that their patient is not the only patient that requires you to be at the bedside! The new Keystone guidelines for the ICU actually encourage set visiting times and Promote resting times for the Patients benefit.I can;t tell you how many patients I have had say to me(as their family finally left) Now I can finally rest ! I can not ask the family to leave the bedside..even when my patient needs time to rest as now it is promoted as a families right to BE There. I have worked in the ICU for 24 years. With the right family..the understanding ..the supportive family it can be good for everyone..But that is Usually NOT the case 99 out of 100 times.

By: danielle

danielle — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 02:30:05 +0000

What she is saying is that a nurse is more than just hanging drips and starting IV’s. Imagine if that were your child in the ICU on a ventilator, multiple drips, and a Swan-ganz cather hooked up to her. Wouldn’t you want to see your daughter anytime you wanted? But WAIT…. you work 12-13 hour shifts, visiting hours are likely over when you get off of work so you will have to wait until your day off before you are allowed to see your daughter. How would that make you feel? Most families are horrified that their loved one is in the ICU. A nurse should be the one to comfort and help guide them through stressful situations not shun them when visiting hours are over.

Also, look at the literature. The literature clearly favors open visitation opposed to restricted visitation. Nurses say that it is not beneficial for the patient but study after study has disproved this myth.
But I guess your opinion really dosen’t matter because starting January, 2011 JACHO is mandating for ALL hospitals to allow one family member to be with the paitent 24/7

By: Shannon

Shannon — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:15:53 +0000

Wendy,
I would say that the ICU nurses that you have experienced who have been a nurse a very long time and are harder than you with flexibility when visiting have suffered the same fate that you have and may have not seen nurses practicing with an open visitation frame of mind. We can get set in our ways if we have never seen practice done differently or stop looking at current research. Remember when all patients were supposed to lay flat in the bed? It is just like a new nurse learning how to read a PA cath, you have to see it done and be surrounded by a team who can show you how to do it, to realize how it works and why. Please dont get stuck in the belief that the ICU is so very different and that gives us reason to need more time to get our work done than other areas of nursing. What Palliative care nurses do, floor nurses, oncology and clinic nurses do is all CRITICAL and a lot of work. They have the family present. I dont think any nurse should be given an award for letting family visit when the person is dying I would love to meet the uncaring nurse who would refuse that. You will not get kudos from anyone for making that statment. It is the other times when a patient is not in the process of dying but still very ill, because as you know with your 5 years of experience, those patients that are doing “OK” can be dead in a few hours and nobody saw it coming. Those families would have missed out on the last hours to be with their family. So to answer your question, my Masters is in Nursing Administration and Leadership. I chose that tract because I want to take care of patients by taking care and leading nurses into making professional sound decisions that help them to not get burned. To make hospital policies that remove obstacles that impede nurses from doing their jobs and thus having impact on patients and families. I absoulutely plan on being at the bedside while a Nurse Manager. You can’t lead by example the nurses you are in charge of from your office. I am pretty sure that by doing this I will be able to impact even more patient and family lives.

By: Martha

Martha — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:18:01 +0000

Every aspect of our patients’ care is individualized…why not the visiting too? Some patients get dialysis, some don’t. It requires communication, compassion and judgment….hard skills to develop but worth all the work it takes.

Sitting in the waiting room are frightedned people whose fear grows the longer you keep them out. You try leaving the one you love most in the hands of strangers who won’t let you in….wait till it’s your mother or your baby.

By: nursewendy

nursewendy — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:49:52 +0000

Shannon, I would first like to say that I have always allowed families to be with patients when they are dying. I am not uncaring or as some of you say, “lacking confidence in my skills.” I have been an ICU nurse for about five years now…but I really dont think there is a correlation between years of experience and nurses acceptance of family presence in the units. I know plenty of nurses that have been nursing for 10-15 years who are much more strict than I am. I have been on the other side of the ICU bed, my grandfather died in an ICU. I went to visit him, he was not at the hospital where I work and their rules for visiting were different. They do not have set visiting times, they have the authority to say yes or no to visitors at any time of the day. I respected their right to do so.

It is nice to hear that you have been an ICU nurse in a level 1 trauma center for 15 years and are very close to obtaining your masters degree, but I would like to know why it is you have decided to leave patient care and go into administration? Seems like a nurse with your experience would serve the patient and their families better at the bedside.

By: Nurse Practitioner George

Nurse Practitioner George — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:23:09 +0000

Shannon I completely agree with your statement. You truly have to be on the other side of the bed to understand what its like. I was an ICU nurse for 10 years before obtaining my masters in nursing. I never minded being there for families and being a patient advocate. Its nice to hear there are still caring ICU nurses practicing. If my scoliosis wasnt so bad I would still like to be there for patients on the weekends. There is usually time to get your work done even with a critically ill patient and be there for patients and families. I think some nurses just aren’t confident in there practice at first and there are many new nurses working in ICU’s.

By: Shannon

Shannon — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 03:04:55 +0000

Sorry Bob but you make the statement. We should deal with the families emotional needs during visiting hours. I can promise you that the family is an emotional wreck during the hours that they can’t visit as well. To bad if we don’t want to deal with it, it is not about the nurse. You can still take care of the patient and if you need them to step out because you need to save dad’s life then have them step out. But don’t fall back on visiting hours as a crutch. I can tell you that families often know when someone looks uncomfortable and usually they are right. So you reposition the patient and if is not a good time to do so because it will not be good for the patient you tell them so. I am sure they can understand when you explain it to them.

By: Shannon

Shannon — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 02:35:39 +0000

Great discussion. I am always sad to hear any ICU nurse believing that our jobs are so busy that we can’t step outside and realize that we will probably forget this patient a year from now but the family will sadly remember this forever, especially when the person dies. Wendy you are correct in stating that we can’t let everyone stay the night but we can and should always do it for the ones who need it period. You are also right, what we do is critical and those families know what is at stake as well and need us too. However, it appears that you have an overinflated idea or ego about Critical nursing with respect to the task portion of our job. Setting limits is fine if a family needs that but most just want to be near the person they love. It has been my exerience that nurses who want to keep famililies at a distance either have not acquired the skills to help ICU families because they have only been an ICU nurse for a few years. Trust me you will need those skills whatever advanced degree you get. Yes, it usually take more than five to be able to take care of any ICU patient and the family at the same time for 12 hours. So having said that I will place it out ther now. I have been and ICU nurse at a level 1 trauma center for 15 years and I will complete my Masters in Nursing Administration in 3 weeks. I am interested to hear how long it is that you have been a nurse? It is an interesting discussion and one that I have had with many nurses during my career. If you are ever on the other side of the ICU bed and are watching someone you love so much getting worse you really want to be there as much as you can because those may be the last days you get to hold their hand. Until you have lived that you can’t imagine how wonderful it is getting an ICU nurse who wants you there and can still get their job done.