Perception of health professionals regarding the visit regime in the ICU.

Identifier:  TFG:1899

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/TFG1899

Authors:  Mesa Villarroya, Paula.

Abstract:
Objective: The access of families to the intensive care unit is a moment of great emotional impact that can be experienced both by families and patients with great anguish and anxiety. The ICU professionals focus their attention on saving the patient's life and this, although being a priority, can make central aspects of the care, like addressing uncertain subjects to the family or give support to the patient and family at the moment they enter the unit, become outside the attention. On the other hand, the family's access to open doors is gaining strength in our country given the evidence of the good results of this practice, both for the patient's well-being and to control family uncertainty and stress. However, in our environment, despite the evidence, most ICUs continue to have family access on a visitation basis. We ask ourselves if the nurses may be contributing to the permanence of this norm by their perception of family access and if this changes with the open door experience. Methodology: Interpretive phenomenological qualitative study. In-depth interviews were conducted with three nurses who experienced the change from a closed ICU to a unit with a flexible visiting schedule. Results and discussion: The nurses expose the deficiencies, strengths and impediments to the implementation of an open visitation regime in an ICU. Coinciding with the different studies that refer to this topic, they consider that it has very beneficial effects for both family members, patients and healthcare personnel and highlights the importance of the nurse-family relationship. The main needs that are mentioned as the least covered are the information and the visit policy. Conclusions: Every day the nurses are more knowledgeable about the different studies that talk about the benefits of an extension in the visiting schedule in the ICU and are in favor of it. Still, many of the staff members are reluctant to open the doors claiming the high severity of the patient that we find in this type of units and excess workload. We consider it necessary to create a series of improvement proposals that allow nurses to better understand this situation and work in the best possible conditions.