Staff perceptions of family access and visitation policies in Australian and New Zealand intensive care units: The WELCOME-ICU survey

Family experiences and perceptions of intensive care unit care and communication during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…30e32 In Australia, visitation during nonpandemic times is quite liberal, with many units open to visitors 20e24 h per day. 33 The Australian National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards recognise that the presence and participation of a support person in hospital can reduce patient anxiety and confusion and increase family satisfaction with care. 34 There has been extensive previous research on the effects on families of ICU patients during nonpandemic times.…”

Variation in communication and family visiting policies in intensive care within and between countries during the Covid-19 pandemic: The COVISIT international survey

“…Programs that delineate visiting policies according to levels of hospital and ICU strain, with valets checking for COVID-19 symptoms and vaccination status (where applicable) while assisting with PPE outline a framework that may facilitate reopening hospitals and ICUs to visitors [1]. Importantly, similar to the case prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the process of re-implementing a more open visiting strategy must involve shared decision making and governance among all ICU team members, availability of appropriate family spaces, and always ensuring safety and well-being of visitors, patients, and staff [3,23,24]. We must work towards the return of family centred critical care, including open visiting policies.…”

Reducing Undue Burden on Nurses Related to Limited Care Partner Visitation

“…12 Reducing nurse distress during restricted visitation requires visiting policies that are easily understandable, leave limited room for interpretation, and are consistently enforced without frequent revision. 2,[12][13][14][16][17][18] Because of increased nursing work and distress associated with interpretation and application of new and more restrictive visiting policies, healthcare leaders should carefully consider these sequelae when developing or modifying such policies. In 1 study, 70% of the ICU nurses involved in their qualitative study met criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), findings that are consistent with other studies during previous pandemics.…”

“…The presence of care partners is associated with many beneficial patient-and familycentered advantages to hospitalized patients including advocating for the patient, preserving mobility, providing emotional support and familiarity, and information sharing. 2,3 Care partner and family presence can also relieve workload strain on nurses. 4 Benefits to patients have been widely recognized; therefore, care partner involvement has become a fixture of hospitalbased, patient-centered care.…”