Open Visitation: Enabling Family Presence, Centered Care, and Engagement in Intensive Care Unit

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2025

Abstract

Family-centered care (FCC) is the guiding philosophy that promotes collaboration, dignity, respect, and information sharing between families and health care teams. In the intensive care unit (ICU), this approach relies on family presence at the bedside with open visitation serving as the structural enabler that makes that presence possible.1 These elements, open visitation leading to family presence, which supports FCC, operate together to lay the foundation for meaningful family engagement, where families are actively involved in care, communication, and decision-making to improve outcomes for patients, families, and health care teams (Fig. 1). The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted this operation. Restrictive visitation policies eliminated the structural support of open visitation for family presence, derailing FCC and severely limiting family engagement. As a result, families experienced heightened stress and helplessness, while patients endured loneliness and emotional distress.2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 As health care systems recover, there is an urgent need to rebuild ICU cultures rooted in FCC and cultures that actively prioritize and facilitate family presence through open, consistent visitation policies.

Comments

Articles in Press, November 26, 2025

DOI

10.1016/j.cnc.2025.10.007

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