Open visitation policy in intensive care units in Jordan: cross-sectional study of nurses' perceptions

Abstract

Introduction Intensive care unit patients and families experience significant stress. It creates frustrations, nervousness, irritability, social isolation for patients, anxiety, and depression for families. An open visitation policy with no time or duration limits may assist in reducing these negative experiences. However, most Jordanian and regional hospitals within the Middle-East and Northern Africa (MENA) have not implemented this strategy. Purpose To evaluate nurse managers' and nurses' perspectives on the effects of an open visitation policy at intensive care units (ICUs) on patients, families, and nurses' care. Method A cross-sectional, descriptive, and comparative survey design was used. Results A total of 234 nurses participated in the study; 59.4% were males, and 40.6% were females. The mean of their age was 28.6 years, with a mean of 4.1 years of experience. Nurses generally had negative perceptions and attitudes toward the open visitation policy and its consequences on the patient, family, and nursing care. Conclusions ICU managers and staff nurses did not favor implementing an open visitation in their units despite its known benefits, international recommendations, and relevance and compatibility with the local religious and cultural context. A serious discussion regarding this hesitation from the side of the healthcare professionals should be started to find a suitable solutions that consider the benefits of the open visitation policy and the challenges that prevent its implementation in the Jordanian and Arabic cultures.

Designing a Visiting Policy Based on the Challenges of the Coronary Care Unit: An Interactive Approach

“…The most important request of patients and their families or companions was to make face-to-face visiting. In addition to patients and companions, hospital staff also referred to scheduled and pre-planned face-to-face visiting (21). Attempts are made to improve the quality of visiting in the new visiting policy by giving more opportunities for patient-companion and companion-physician visiting, focusing on ensuring complete and timely information, allocating a room for companion-physician and patient-companion visiting, and paying attention to the required equipment.…”

An integrated review: connecting Covid-era hospital visiting policies to family engagement

“…The review includes diverse study designs, including quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-method designs. Seven studies include a survey in their design (12,25,27,33,36,38,46). The review includes randomized control trials (22,41), retrospective comparative studies (20,26,31,38,43,47), observational studies (29, 40), and a regression discontinuity and time to event design (24).…”

“…Seven studies include a survey in their design (12,25,27,33,36,38,46). The review includes randomized control trials (22,41), retrospective comparative studies (20,26,31,38,43,47), observational studies (29, 40), and a regression discontinuity and time to event design (24). There are qualitative studies with semi-structured interviews (21, 30,45).…”