[Patient's relatives wishes concerning the visiting hours in an intensive care unit].
OBJECTIVE
The present study was aimed at assessing the opinion of the patient's relatives concerning the visiting hours in the ICU.


METHODS
The visiting relatives were questioned about the information delivered in the Unit (assessed as 0 for minimal and 10 for maximal assessments, respectively) and the hypothesis to extend the Unit's visiting hours. The responses were given independently by the relatives.


RESULTS
Eighty-seven out of 64 relatives responded (63% females). The delivered information was assessed by a median note=10 (interquartile: [8-10]). The current visiting times (2h per day during the week, 6h in weekend) were assessed as sufficient by 48 closest (58%). Fifty-four (67%, CI95%=[56-77]) requested more liberal visiting times and 38 (46%, CI95%=[36-57]) requested 24h visiting policy. Five relatives (6%, CI95%=[1-11]) would like to be present during patient's care. Most relatives do not wish to assist to patient's care to avoid interfering with caregiver's workload (81%), to respect the patient's intimacy (49%) and by fear of being impressed by the care (23%). Forty percent of the relatives would like to help feeding the patient.


CONCLUSIONS
Most of the relatives wish for more liberal visiting times without interfering with patient's care.
Roger
C
C
Division anesthésie réanimation-douleur-urgence, CHU de Nîmes, France.
Mari
A
A
Bousquet
P-J
PJ
Louart
G
G
Casano
F
F
Cuvillon
A
A
Muller
L
L
Zoric
L
L
Saïssi
G
G
Lefrant
J-Y
JY
D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors; D014789:Visitors to Patients / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*