Having Visiting Hours in the Intensive Care Unit

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An intensive care unit (ICU) is a special section of hospital that offers continuously specialized care for critically ill patients. The purpose of intensive care unit is to give the required care to its patients at all times. Healthcare providers assign duties to workers or interns who carry out round the clock intensive monitoring and treatment of the critically ill patients (Krubholz & Masoudi, 2006). Intensive care unit offers relief to patients suffering from a potentially life threatening illness, hence the necessity to ensure approach to care is observed with maximum caution. There are special equipments and monitoring devises required for a complete provision of care for ICU patients. It is a common practice that ICU units tend to limit the number of visitors even during the allocated visiting hours. The patient’s cardiac status, breathing rates, blood levels and urinary out put are assessed frequently by the healthcare professionals, so as to analyze if there is a problem that requires urgent attention. Those who have been operated on are provided with special equipments to facilitate their recovery process. For instance, these patients are provided with specific equipments that can detect blood pressure fluctuations like the catheters. They normally have their breathing rates under monitor and necessary mechanical support is given through ventilators and tubes in case some anomalies are detected. Patients in intensive care units are also offered with alarms that operate incase a patient’s vital signs elapses. For example, changes in heartbeat rate and blood pressure can be checked through this process.

Visiting hours are meant to allow people to come in to check on how the patients cope on with treatment. It is done with particular procedure and at a particular time. For example ,visiting hours may be from 7.00am to 9.00pm in some hospitals ,while in others may be restricted for only a short period of time like from 5.00pm to 6.00pm.

Having visiting hours in the intensive care unit is advantageous in many ways. First, patients try to show some positive responses such as reduced blood pressure and heart rates, consequently leading to a potential decrease in blood sugar level (Plowright, 2006). The visiting effect has a psychological impact on the patient’s mental thinking, as close family members and friends’ closeness during visit offers sense of love and joy (Plowright, 2006). Patients always feel happy and comfortable when they see one or more of their relatives and friends sit next to them and give them word of hope and encouragement. Such gestures from family members and relatives make patients feel loved and cared for, thus bringing a sigh of relief amidst the inherent pain.

Visiting hours have also been found to be beneficial to the family members. Family members and friends, generally referred to as significant others, often feel worried, hopeless, helpless and uncomfortable about the situation their loved one has been subjected to (Farrell, Joseph & Schwartz- Barcott, 2006). A common observation suggest that once the patient has been admitted into the hospital’s ICU, family members and friends are often left with little information about on progress. In such a case, the only way they would be assured of the patient’s status and progress is by providing them with visiting hours; a period in which they can get updated, and even be in position to update the ICU care staff of what they feel is important for complete care. A family member selected to visit the patient will be in position to give feedback concerning the patient to the rest of the family members and friends. Therefore, visiting hours in intensive care units is very necessary to both the patients, and friends and family members.

Studies show that family members often have important information at their disposal during visits. The information concerning patients admitted in ICU has been found to be useful in the diagnosis and treatment process. For example, a patient may have undergone a life threatening experience in the past, but the family members present during admission fail to mention such a case, subsequently leading to misinformation. Allowing family members and friends to visit have therefore been found to give them opportunity to recall some of those experiences, significantly helping the medical team to adjust their treatment plan where necessary (Ismail, 2007). The medical team is also in a position to increase surveillance on the patient, so as to establish whether there’s need for special treatment for the latter.

It is noted that patients who have been admitted in the intensive care units are facing the most critical stage of their lives, often finding themselves stressed up and disillusioned. Having visiting hours in the ICU is very useful and important to the patient’s therapeutic process of healing. Moreover, it is treated as a human rights requirement, accorded to the patient and his family members during the most critical moment in life (Lee, Friedenberg & Mukpo, 2007). This period enables family to have the needed chance to provide necessary input into the sick person’s care, such as involving themselves in the healing process of the patient through psychological support. It also builds trust between the patient and hospital staff in charge.

However, there are several disadvantages of visiting hours. Chief among them is the privacy and confidentiality issue. It is noted that some procedures performed on patients are so confidential, that allowing individuals outside the medical team may be impractical. In some cases, the patient may be in a very critical condition that he /she is unable to talk, but does not want to see people around him or her. Such a scenario may lower the patient’s self esteem and even worsen his /her health condition if visitors are allowed in. In certain incidences, visiting hours have been found to interfere with a patient’s rest (Tanner, 2005). Specifically, this affects patients who have experienced critical injury; and requires enough rest to gain the needed strength for healing process. Such patients do not want disturbance, as this irritates them and subsequently lowers their ability of recover. Moreover, visiting family members and friends may be bothering the patient with unending questions, some of which may be sound insensitive. The anxiety on the side of the visiting family members and friends may lead irritation, as the patient would be required to repeat issues over and over, thus denying the patient enough rest, increase the stress level, subsequently prolonging his or her healing process.

The other group that is highly affected by the visiting hours is healthcare providers and their staff. Family members and friends have been noted to put a lot of pressure and sometimes give orders to the nurse in charge or the doctor on how things should be done, ostensibly assuming the roles and abilities of these specialists. According to Tanner (2005), such cases leave nurses attending to the patient with the feeling of worthlessness, psychologically jeopardizing treatment process. One qualitative study showed that in some incident, a nurse in charge never returned to the ICU room until the visitors had left; just to avoid being ‘tossed here and there’. Some visitors have also been found to break the rules such living their mobile phones on during the visit, consequently going against the regulations set. A ringing phone has been found to have irritating impact on the sick. In some cases, the patient may need an emergency attention during visiting hours, a process that can be tricky as family members may not notice when a medical staff is not accompanying them. Therefore; visiting hours should depend on individual patient’s willingness, medical team recommendation, and the overall status of the patient needs.

Visiting hours have a great advantage in the intensive care unit because it makes the patients to know that they are loved and taken care of by their relatives especially during critical moments. Moreover, it boosts patient’s morale in life, through the psychological support given by family members, thus act as stepping stone to the patient’s healing process. However, this time also has some disadvantages, especially when a proper plan is not in place. It can result into distractions to both the critically ill person and the healthcare providers. Therefore, visitation process should be a decision made by the patient himself if they are in position to talk. It should also be limited to a certain level to avoid confusion and disruptions in a patient’s rest time, which is known to facilitate recovery process. However, the most important thing is to ensure a proper plan, entails medical team and a patient’s views, is put in to place so that it does not interfere with other medical plans scheduled for the patient.

Reference List

Farrell, M., Joseph, D., & Schwartz- Barcott, D. (2006). Visiting Hours in the ICU: Finding the balance among patients, visitors and staff needs. Nursing Forum, 40 (1), 18-28.

Ismail, S. (2007). Visiting times: History, BMJ 101 (17): 58-85.

Krubholz, M., & Masoudi, F. (2006). The year in epidemiology, health services research, and outcomes research. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 48(9), 1886- 1895.

Lee, D., Friedenberg, S., & Mukpo, H. (2007). Visiting hours policies in New England intensive care units: strategies for improvement. Critical Care Medicine, 35(2): 497-501.

Plowright C. (2006). Just who actually benefits from restricted visiting hours is not clear. Nurs Times, 102(47):12.

Tanner J. (2005).Visiting time preferences of patients, visitors and staff. Nurs Times, 101(27):38-42.

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Having Visiting Hours in the Intensive Care Unit

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