The Effect of Scheduled Appointments on the Views of Nurses and Families of Patients Admitted to the General Intensive Care Unit

Admission in intensive care units is a crisis for the patient and family and the critical condition of patients admitted to intensive care units or the possibility of their death in these wards necessitates the need for their families’ visits. This study aimed to investigate the effect of scheduled visitation from the perspective of nurses and families of patients admitted to the general intensive care unit.

The present study was conducted using a quasi-experimental design in 2019. The participants were 60 nurses working in adult intensive care units and 197 families of patients admitted to the ICU who were selected by convenience sampling. The instruments used to collect the data were a demographic information registration form to record the nurses’ demographic data, the Beliefs and Attitudes Visitation Questionnaire (BAVIQ) to assess the nurseschr('39') beliefs, and the Attitudes Evaluation Questionnaire to survey the families of patients admitted to the intensive care unit. In this study, patientschr('39') families were asked to be present at the patientchr('39')s bedside for 6 days and perform the trained procedures. The patientschr('39') families completed the Attitudes Evaluation Questionnaire before and after the intervention. The nurses also completed the BAVIQ questionnaire before and after the research project.

The results showed that 68.3% of the nurses were female, 48.3% were in the age group of 30-45 years, 56.7% were married, 45% of them were working contractually, and 81.7% were working in rotating shifts. Besides, the results of the paired samples t-test showed that the nurseschr('39') views about visitation were significantly different before and after the intervention (p<0.001).However, the Patientschr('39') family attitudes had not significantly different views toward scheduled visitation before and after the intervention (Pvalue=0.375).

The present study suggested that the nurses had positive views about the presence of families of patients admitted to the intensive care unit and there is a conducive context for the presence of the patients chr('39')families. However, the patientschr('39') families reported a negative view. Accordingly, some measures must be taken to prepare the families emotionally with the training given to them and make them familiar with the positive effects of attending their patientchr('39')s bedside.