Family and pet visitation in the critical care unit.

Ronda Drahozal is a staff nurse in the medical ICU in the Department of Nursing and Patient Care Services at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City, Iowa. lead to deterioration in hemodynamic or intracranial pressure indices. Nurses, as patient advocates, desire to limit potentially detrimental stimuli. Studies have found a decrease or no significant change in heart rate, blood pressure, or intracranial pressure during family visitation. Monitoring the patient’s physiological response to the presence of family members is important. Beneficial affects of family interactions with critically ill patients include improved family understanding of the patients condition, reduced family and patient anxiety, improved control, and better rest between visits. Families have the opportunity to have more of their needs met using an open visitation intervention. Opening visitation also improves family satisfaction with the critical care experience. It would appear that the positive impact of less restrictive family visitation outweighs potentially negative consequences. Nurses’ perceptions of patient preferences are not always accurate and their attitudes are not always positive. Patients and families have positive perceptions of family visits. Positive beliefs and attitudes of nurses are essential in promoting family visitation. For many nurses, a turning point from excluding to including families in critical care practice is the personal experience of having a relative or loved one hospitalized in a critical care unit.