Nurses' attitudes toward parental visitation on the postanesthesia care unit.

Little has been documented in the nursing research literature about the desirability and the effects of parental visitation of children in the Post Anesthesia Care Unit. The purpose of this study was to determine the attitudes of PACU nurses about parental visitation in the PACU and the conditions under which PACU nurses believe that parental visitation should and should not occur. A 22-item questionnaire was developed by the authors for the purposes of this study. One hundred questionnaires were distributed at a South Carolina Post Anesthesia Nurses Association Conference; 79 completed questionnaires were returned. Eleven percent (n = 9) of the subjects opposed parental visitation in the PACU under any circumstances. Conditions affecting nurses' opinions about parental visitation were age of child, level of agitation, and how busy the PACU was at the time.