The visit of family members in intensive care units from the nursing team perspective

Abstract

A qualitative study that aimed to describe the perception of the nursing team over the visit of relatives of patients admitted to Intensive Care Units. The subjects of this study were professionals from the nursing team of the Adult Intensive Care Unit and of the Cardiology Intensive Care Unit of a university hospital in Rio Grande do Sul. The creative-sensitive method has been applied to obtain the data with the dynamic "Costurando Estórias". Systematic observation was used as a complementary technique for data collection. Three themes were considered in analyzing the data: the gap between the team and family members in intensive care units; the lack of knowledge of the patient’s family on the condition and environment of intensive care units, and attitudes adopted by the team while relatives were visiting. The study results show that the involvement of the nursing team with the family during the visit is not perceived generally as a practice of care. It is believed that the incorporation of the policy of humanization in intensive care units has been the prospect of a change in the care provided to patients and their families having a positive repercussion on this adverse scenario.