Impact of family visit restrictions due to COVID‐19 policy on patient outcomes: A cohort study

Abstract

Aim To investigate the impact of family visit restrictions during the COVID‐19 pandemic on deliriums, falls, pneumonia, pressure ulcers and readmissions among surgical inpatients with gastrointestinal (oncologic) diseases. Design Cohort study. Methods This study was conducted among adult inpatients undergoing gastrointestinal surgery in two academic hospitals. During the COVID‐19 outbreak in 2020, over a 10‐week period, one cohort was subjected to family visit restrictions. Per patient, one person per day was allowed to visit for a maximum of 30 min. This cohort was compared with another cohort in which patients were not subjected to such restrictions during a 10‐week period in 2019. Logistic regression analyses were used to investigate the impact of the restrictions on deliriums, falls, pneumonia, pressure ulcers and readmissions. Results In total, 287 patients were included in the 2020 cohort and 243 in the 2019 cohort. No differences were observed in the cohorts with respect to baseline characteristics. Logistic regression analyses showed no significant differences in deliriums, falls, pneumonia, pressure ulcers and readmissions between the cohorts. Conclusion We cautiously conclude that the family visit restrictions during the COVID‐19 pandemic did not contribute to deliriums, falls, pneumonia, pressure ulcers or readmissions in surgical patients with gastrointestinal (oncologic) diseases. Impact COVID‐19 influenced family‐centred care due to family visit restrictions. Nurses need to continue monitoring outcomes known to be sensitive to family‐centred care to gain insight into the effects of visit restrictions and share the results in order to include nurses' perspectives in COVID‐19‐decision‐making. Re‐implementing of family visit restrictions should be carefully considered in policy‐making.

Nurses’ experience during the COVID-19 pandemic: Multicenter mixed-methods study on coping and resilience strategies

“…Despite the perceived excessive workload, nurses reported no reduced quality of care and did not refer to care left incomplete or undone, a frequent problem for COVID_19 patients [39]. In fact, some reported that they developed greater closeness and communication with the patient because of the absence of family members demonstrating high levels of professionalism [40,41]. However, Hargreaves and colleagues (2022) emphasized nurses' concern about not being able to provide the same quality of care as before the pandemic [7].…”

Experiences of healthcare professionals, patients and families with video calls to stimulate patient‐ and family‐centred care during hospitalization: A scoping review

“…However, the use of telehealth, and specifically the use of video calls is also growing in hospital wards. Currently, video call interventions are widely implemented in hospital wards and during the COVID-19 pandemic, these video calls appeared to be a valuable communication tool to involve families during hospital admission and to keep families in contact with patients and their healthcare professionals (Bloemberg et al, 2022;Dhahri et al, 2021;Maaskant et al, 2021).…”

The future is ours to shape: Nursing emerging from the pandemic with insight, optimism and courage

“…Volunteering across all sectors of health and social care, education and food supply chains was needed on a scale not previously seen. The pandemic was a catalyst for digital transformation, and in nursing we saw that clearly through rapid increases in telehealth (Searby & Burr, 2021; Walthall et al, 2022), changed practices in relation to hospital visiting (Altman et al, 2021; Bloemberg et al, 2022; Lim et al, 2022) and in teaching and learning practices in nurse education (Iradukunda & Canty, 2023; Kimani, 2023; Usher et al, 2023).…”