Effect of family visits on the blood pressure and heart rate of patients in the coronary-care unit.
Conclusions that can be drawn from this study are: (1) the blood pressure and heart rate of CCU patients show no significant changes when the patients are awake and are not interrupted by stressful events. (2) A family visiting period of ten minutes every hour creates a stressful effect on the blood pressure and heart rate of cardiac patients in a CCU. (3) Since patients are particularly vulnerable to fatigue in the early stages of coronary illness, a ten-minute visiting period every hour for twelve hours appears to be a stressful event and indicates that the present visiting schedules are not conducive to good patient management. (4) Continuing studies should be done to determine what other type of CCU visiting time arrangements might be made to insure better patient care.
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001794:Blood Pressure; D003325:Coronary Care Units; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate; D006739:Hospital Administration; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000503:physiopathology; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000209:etiology*