Family Visitation in the Postanesthesia Care Unit: Implementation of a Nurse Liaison Role.

The purpose of this article was to report on the nurse liaison role developed at a 400-bed community hospital in response to a previously published best practice project on the effect of family visitation in the PACU on family member anxiety. The evidence resulted in the development of the nurse liaison role, which changed nursing practice and involved each area of perioperative services as we embarked on family-centered care (FCC). The nurse liaison program has served as a model for other hospital departments as well as area hospitals. Guidelines for implementation of the program, which included FCC, are discussed as well as job guidelines, job descriptions, challenges, and outcomes.

Postanesthesia care unit visitation decreases family member anxiety.

Despite advocacy by professional nursing organizations, no randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have evaluated the response of family members to a visit with an adult patient during a postanesthesia care unit (PACU) stay. Therefore, the purpose of this RCT was to evaluate the impact of a brief PACU visitation on the anxiety of family members. The study was conducted in a phase I PACU of a large community-based hospital. Subjects were designated adult family members or significant others of an adult PACU patient who had undergone general anesthesia. A pretest-posttest RCT design was used. The dependent variable was the change in anxiety scores of the visitor after seeing his or her family member in the PACU. Student t test (unpaired, two tailed) was used to determine if changes in anxiety scores (posttest score-pretest score) were different for the PACU visit and no visit groups. A total of 45 participants were studied over a 3-month period, with N=24 randomly assigned to a PACU visit and N=21 assigned to usual care (no PACU visit). Participants in the PACU visit group had a statistically significant (P=.0001) decrease in anxiety after the visitation period (-4.11±6.4); participants in the usual care group (no PACU visit) had an increase in anxiety (+4.47±6.6). The results from this study support the value and importance of PACU visitation for family members.