Authors : Shahrzad Ghiyasvandian , Abbas Abbaszadeh , Morteza Ghojazadeh and Zahra Sheikhalipour
Abstract: Admission to an intensive care unit is recognized as an extremely stressful experience for both patients and their families. Also, the responses of nurses to visitors in ICU are different and they behave in different ways. The reasons of these behaviors based on some problems that visitors cause for patients and unit managing. However, such belief about open visiting can affect the quality of nursing care specially its spiritual aspects. At present, family visiting policy at intensive care units contains more limitations. By performing this study we temporarily changed visiting policy from outside and beyond the window to presence of family beside patient in own unit. The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of open ICU visiting on nurses and family's beliefs about nursing care. A semi-experimental study was designed. Because of the opposition to changing visiting policy at wide level, sample was contained 14 employed nurses at intensive care unit from educational hospital in Tabriz which each completed one self-structured questionnaire. Questionnaire was developed by using likert scale with 28 questions about personal and social factors of nurses' beliefs about changing visiting policy from restricted to open by using the theory of reasoned action of Ajzen and Fishbein and its validity and reliability was calculated. Results showed that before changing in visiting policy nurses' beliefs was negative. Based on maximum score = 4 mean of scores was 76.71±6.31 and after open visiting was 79.64±5.94. Difference between scores distribution of nurses' beliefs before and after changing visiting policy was meaningful by using Wilkacson test (p = 0.038). Comparing nurses' beliefs score with individual factors, though was not meaningful statistically in general, but nurses' beliefs about the role of family presence in supporting patient, decreasing patients anxiety and hastening patient recovery, obtained higher score after open visiting (57.1, 85.7, 92.8). According to study findings, predominant factors in nurse's beliefs were social factors specially colleagues, supervisors roles, unit policies and managers.
Shahrzad Ghiyasvandian , Abbas Abbaszadeh , Morteza Ghojazadeh and Zahra Sheikhalipour , 2009. The Effect of Open Visiting on Intensive Care Nurse’s Beliefs. Research Journal of Biological Sciences, 4: 64-70.