The policy of family visits to patients admitted into intensive care units (ICUs) has been liberalised in recent years. This change has been progressive in our unit from a restricted to an open visiting policy. We have carried out this study based on Ajzen and Fishbein reasoned action theory. The aim of this study is to analyse the relationship between nurses' beliefs and attitudes towards the effect of an open visiting policy on patients, family and nurses. A descriptive correlational design was used. The sample included 46 intensive care nurses from a teaching hospital in Spain, who completed two self-administered anonymous questionnaires. One of them, derived from empirical results of Kirchhoff et al. (1993) and Simpson et al. (1996) studies, was a Likert-type scale including 26 items divided in three subscales (patient, family and nurses). This scale was used to obtain the nurses' beliefs regarding the effects of open visiting. The second questionnaire was a differential semantic scale (used by the previous authors), which analysed nurses' attitudes towards visiting on the patient, family and nurses. Nurses' beliefs about the effect of visiting were positive, achieving a mean value of 3.001 (patient 3.04, family 3.23 and nurses 2.78) on a scale with a maximum value of 4. The mean score obtained on the scale of attitudes toward an open visiting policy was 6.005 (patient 6.41, family 6.37 and nurses 5.22), with a maximum of 7. The correlation between beliefs and attitudes was significant and positive (r = 0523, p < 0.0001). Comparison of sociodemographic variables with beliefs and attitudes disclosed no statistically significant differences, except for the two following variables: attitude and having children (t = -2.254, p = 0.03) which obtained a higher score. There is a correlation between nurses' beliefs and attitudes regarding the positive effects of open visiting on patients, family and nurses.

The good measurement qualities of the CPOT scale obtained during a painful procedure recommend its use in intensive care units (ICUs) for adult patients with artificial ventilation.

Awareness of the importance that these participants gave to discomfort caused in their basic needs should lead nurses to pay special attention to the nursing interventions to help with these needs. As a result of this research, nurses and other professionals in the intensive care unit know that patients have an immediate sense of positive change. This enables us to reinforce this perception, reminding them frequently that they have already had their transplant and they are progressing well, thereby aiding their recovery. With regard to the social support of liver transplant patients, nurses must facilitate the presence of family members at the patient's bedside, as participants stated that the only support they needed was that of their family.

No abstract

No abstract