Persepsi Keluarga Tentang Waktu Berkunjung di Intensive Care Unit (ICU)

Abstract

Background: Patients with critical conditions would create an anxiety on their familes. It makes them want to always be beside the patient. Visiting time is the time given to the family to interact with the patient.Objective: To explore the family’s perceptiontoward the visiting time at the ICU.Methods: This was a descriptive qualitative research with four family members of the critical patients selected based on purposive sampling technique. The data were collected using in-depth interviews and analyzed using analytical techniques by Collaizi.Results: It was found 3 main themes: visiting time, functions of the visiting time, and family’s expectations during the visiting time. Most families said that the visiting time should be flexible, should adjust the patients’ conditions, they should be able to visit at anytime, there should be one family member that always beside the patient, and the visit time should not disrupt the patients’ rest period. During the visiting time, the family could provide support to the patients such as motivation, communication, touch and prayer. Being near to the patient made all the family members felt more comfortable rather than being away that would made them more anxious, and this closeness made the family was able to know the patient’s condition directly. Most families expected to get accurate information about the patients during the visiting time.Conclusions and suggestions: Thefamilies needed to stay close to the patients to provide support to them and made them more comfortable. The hospitals were suggested to consider the families’ needs in setting the policies on the visiting time at the ICU. Keywords: visiting time, family’s perception, Intensive Care Unit