The Visitation Conditions, Parents’ Anxiety and Nurses’ Attitudes of Open Visitation in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

ABSTRACT

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to survey the visitation conditions in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and to evaluate parents’ anxiety and nurses’ attitude about the open visitation policy. Methods: One group pre-posttest design was used. After the approval of the institutional review board was obtained, 22 parents and 58 nurses in the NICU participated in the survey between January and February in 2014.The visitation conditions were the number of patients who had visitors in the NICU for a whole day, total visitation hours, mean visitation hours and total number of visitation in a day. Before and after the open visitations were applied, the anxiety level of the patients and attitudes of the nurses were measured. Results: After the open visitation, all visitation conditions significantly increased. Parents’ anxiety score also significantly decreased after experiencing the open visitation (p=.023). However, nurses’ attitude was not different (p=.851). Conclusion: The open visitation can relive parents’ anxiety in the NICU but still nurses have some conflicts for applying the open visitation. It is necessary to prepare environmental infrastructure and educate nurses and parents to activate the open visitation in the NICU.