The effect of visitation on adult intensive care unit patients

A non-experimental three-group explanatory design study was undertaken to ascertain if the amount of visitation in a medical ICU affected: (1) anxiety, (2) depression, (3) mean blood pressure, pulse rate, respiratory rate, and (4) length of stay of patients. Pulse rates at initiation of visitation, ten minutes into visitation, and thirty minutes into visitation were compared to same time intervals when the patient was awake without visitors.

A convenience sample of 42 subjects admitted to a coronary care unit (CCU) with chest pain or rule out myocardial infarction were divided into three groups. Group one (n = 16) had less than two hours of visitation per day, group two (n = 14) two to four hours, and group three (n = 12) more than four hours.

The instruments were: a demographic data form, Gerber Depression Inventory Scale (GDIS), and the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). Demographic data included age, sex, ethnicity, religion, marital status, income, education, previous ICU admissions, and desire for visitors when ill. The GDIS is a twenty-two item Likert-type scale with a score of forty or higher indicating depression. The STAI is a forty item Likert-type scale, measuring state (situational) anxiety and trait (personality) anxiety. Questionnaires were administered 72 hours after admission to CCU or after discharge from CCU, whichever came first. Amount of visitation was obtained by direct observation.

ANOVAs detected no differences between groups for anxiety or depression at p =.05. No differences were found between groups for mean blood pressure, pulse rate, and respiratory rate on individual days of the ICU stay. A significant difference was found in pulse rate over the entire ICU stay between groups one and two. An ANOVA showed a significant difference on length of stay between group one and both group two and three. Paired t-tests showed no significant differences in pulse rates during visitation and non-visitation.

Findings revealed that visitation had no adverse effect on the patients but did have minimal impact on anxiety and depression. The latter were not significant. Diagnosis, medications, or other extraneous variables could have influenced these results. Additionally a type II error may have occurred due to low power.