Nurses' attitudes toward open visitation in critical care units

This study was an investigation of critical care nurses and their attitudes towards open visitation in relation to selected variables: age, educational level, shift worked, years of critical care experience, type of rooms in the unit, gender, unit worked on, past experience visiting an ill family member, patient/nurse ratio, and current practice of open visitation. The data were collected by self-report questionnaires from a sample of critical care nurses. The mean attitude of the sample was moderately positive towards open visitation. Four conclusions were made: (a) current practice of open visitation appears to be strongly related to positive attitudes toward open visitation, (b)· nurses with 6 to 15 years of experience are more likely to have positive attitudes toward open visitation, (c} nurses are more positive toward open visitation in units that have private and mixture patient rooms, and (d) 3:1 patient/nurse ratios foster positive attitudes towards open visitation.