[Patient's relatives wishes concerning the visiting hours in an intensive care unit]

The present study was aimed at assessing the opinion of the patient's relatives concerning the visiting hours in the ICU.

The visiting relatives were questioned about the information delivered in the Unit (assessed as 0 for minimal and 10 for maximal assessments, respectively) and the hypothesis to extend the Unit's visiting hours. The responses were given independently by the relatives.

Eighty-seven out of 64 relatives responded (63% females). The delivered information was assessed by a median note=10 (interquartile: [8-10]). The current visiting times (2h per day during the week, 6h in weekend) were assessed as sufficient by 48 closest (58%). Fifty-four (67%, CI95%=[56-77]) requested more liberal visiting times and 38 (46%, CI95%=[36-57]) requested 24h visiting policy. Five relatives (6%, CI95%=[1-11]) would like to be present during patient's care. Most relatives do not wish to assist to patient's care to avoid interfering with caregiver's workload (81%), to respect the patient's intimacy (49%) and by fear of being impressed by the care (23%). Forty percent of the relatives would like to help feeding the patient.

Most of the relatives wish for more liberal visiting times without interfering with patient's care.