Parental presence and visiting policies in Italian pediatric intensive care units: A national survey

ell into the 1960s, the ad-mission of children intohospital inevitably en-tailed their separationfrom parents and family (1, 2). Visitingwas severely restricted or even prohib-ited, as it was considered dangerous orsimply of no value. Aspects, such as dis-ruption of the intrinsic bond betweenchild and parents or the loss of the pa-rental role, were practically unknown ordisregarded as irrelevant. We have come along way since then, and it is now widelyrecognized that the presence of parentsduring their child’s sickness and hospi-talization is of crucial importance (3).In the critical care setting, visitingpolicies have for many years been veryrestrictive for both pediatric and adultpatients. There long persisted the fear—now recognized as unfounded—that rel-atives and visitors represented a threat topatients (risk of infection and increasedstress) and a hindrance to patient care (4,5). Even in the early 1990s, more thanhalf the pediatric intensive care units(PICUs) surveyed in North America stillhad restrictions to visits (6 ,7). Only re-cently have any data been available con-cerning visiting policies in adult inten-sive care units (ICUs) in Italy (8), whereasnone have yet been published on parentalpresence and visiting policies in Italy’sPICUs. We therefore carried out a na-tional survey to evaluate these issues inItalian PICUs.