Effect of planned visiting policy on physiological indices of intensive care unit patients

Introduction: Visiting patient in intensive care unit (ICUs) is one of the major challenges in healthcare. The belief that visiting will increase the anxiety and create destructive effects on the patient's physiological indices, has led to a serious visiting restriction for patients and their. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the effect of flexible (planned) visiting policy on physiological indices of patients in ICUs. Materials and Methods: This randomized clinical trial was performed on 60 patients admitted in four ICUs of Emam Reza and Qaem hospitals in Mashhad (Iran) in 2018. Patients were randomly divided into two groups of intervention and control. In the control group, the visiting was routinely executed, while the planned visiting policy was performed in the intervention group. Physiological indices were measured before and after visiting. Results: In the intervention group, systolic and diastolic blood pressure at 10 and 30 minutes after the visitation significantly decreased (P<0.05). However, mean arterial pressure has not any significant difference in the both groups in all measuring times (P>0.05). Conclusion: Increasing the duration and frequency of visitation in the ICUs has not destructive effects on patients, but it can make a change in physiological indices to be in normal range. Thus, the results can be used for planning visiting polices in the ICUs.