Abstract
Objectives
To examine conditions and strategies to meet the challenges imposed by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-related visiting restrictions in Scandinavian intensive care units.
Research methodology/design
A cross-sectional survey.
Setting
Adult intensive care units in Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
Main outcome measures
Likert scale responses and free-text comments within six areas: capacity and staffing, visiting policies and access to the unit, information and conferences with relatives, written information, children as relatives and follow-up initiatives.
Results
The overall response rate was 53% (74/140 participating units). All intensive care units had planned for capacity extensions; the majority ranging between 11 and 30 extra beds. From March–June 2020, units had a mean maximum of 9.4 COVID-19 patients simultaneously. Allowing restricted visiting was more common in Denmark (52%) and Norway (61%) than in Sweden where visiting was mostly denied except for dying patients (68%), due to a particular increased number of COVID-19 patients. The restrictions forced nurses to compromise on their usual standards of family care. Numerous models for maintaining contact between relatives and patients were described.
Conclusion
Visitation restrictions compromised the quality of family care and entailed dilemmas for healthcare professionals but also spurred initiatives to developing new ways of providing family care.
To examine conditions and strategies to meet the challenges imposed by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-related visiting restrictions in Scandinavian intensive care units.
Research methodology/design
A cross-sectional survey.
Setting
Adult intensive care units in Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
Main outcome measures
Likert scale responses and free-text comments within six areas: capacity and staffing, visiting policies and access to the unit, information and conferences with relatives, written information, children as relatives and follow-up initiatives.
Results
The overall response rate was 53% (74/140 participating units). All intensive care units had planned for capacity extensions; the majority ranging between 11 and 30 extra beds. From March–June 2020, units had a mean maximum of 9.4 COVID-19 patients simultaneously. Allowing restricted visiting was more common in Denmark (52%) and Norway (61%) than in Sweden where visiting was mostly denied except for dying patients (68%), due to a particular increased number of COVID-19 patients. The restrictions forced nurses to compromise on their usual standards of family care. Numerous models for maintaining contact between relatives and patients were described.
Conclusion
Visitation restrictions compromised the quality of family care and entailed dilemmas for healthcare professionals but also spurred initiatives to developing new ways of providing family care.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 103116 |
| Journal | Intensive and Critical Care Nursing |
| Volume | 68 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| ISSN | 0964-3397 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Feb 2022 |
Keywords
- COVID-19
- Family
- ICU
- Relatives
- Survey
- Visitation
- VISITATION
- MEMBERS
- ANXIETY
- GROUNDED THEORY
- EXPERIENCES
- FAMILY-CENTERED CARE
- NEEDS
- WORLD
- Intensive Care Units
- Cross-Sectional Studies
- Humans
- SARS-CoV-2
- Norway
- Adult
- Child