Comparison of nurses' and family members' perceived needs during postanesthesia care unit visits

Today, more PACUs are opening their doors to visiting family members. This change can be exciting and challenging for the PACU nurse. The expertise involved when caring for the patient must be also extended to the family. Literature shows that families have identifiable needs. By attending to those needs, the nurse may help decrease stress for the family during the patient's hospitalization and enable everyone to cope more effectively. Limited published research is available regarding the needs of family members of PACU patients. This descriptive study explores and compares needs identified by family members when visiting PACU patients with needs of these family members perceived by PACU nurses. Analysis of data using the Mann Whitney-U Test indicates a significant difference between the groups. PACU nurses believed that family members' most important need was information. Family members stated that the need to see the family member was more important than was perceived by the nurses. Both groups agreed that education was an important need. Further studies using a larger sample are needed to validate findings of this study.