Intensive & critical care nursing : the official journal of the British Association of Critical Care Nurses
-
Intensive Crit Care Nurs · Dec 1994
ReviewChildren visiting members of their family receiving treatment in ICUs: a literature review.
Occasionally people ask if children can visit members of their family who are patients in our intensive care unit (ICU). To allow us to devise a unit policy based on research, the author felt it necessary to review literature concerning child visitors to ICUs, more specifically the reasons why they should or should not be allowed to visit. ⋯ The literature reviewed suggested that no reasons have been found not to allow children to visit but that advice should be given to the parents allowing them to come to the final decision. If the parents then decide to allow the child to visit, further support for all the family should be given.
-
Intensive care units (ICUs) are now present in most acute care hospitals. While long-term studies on patients admitted to these units have been performed to identify mortality, functional outcome and quality of life, there is little information on the recovery period in the weeks immediately following discharge. The aim of this study was to identify and describe the sequelae found in patients at 3 months after leaving the ICU. ⋯ Financial problems were reported by a small number of patients. Depression, irritability or a feeling of loneliness were present in over one-third of the group. More than half the patients required referral for further assessment. 34% of patients had no recollection of their ICU stay. 16 patients (29.6%) reported unpleasant memories including nightmares and hallucinations.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)