Evaluation of the Effect of Scheduled Family Appointments on Agitation of ICU Patients: A Quasi-experimental Study

Background: One of the main stressors for patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) is being away from family members and severe appointment time limits. Currently, the treatment environment is made of family members and patients, and the presence of family members plays an important role in the patient’s health. Objective: This study aimed to determine the effect of scheduled family appointments on the agitation of ICU patients. Methods: This quasi-experimental study was performed on 70 patients admitted to the ICU of medical centers affiliated to Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Iran, in 2020. The patients were selected using convenience sampling from among those who met the inclusion criteria. The selected patients were randomly assigned into two equal groups of control and intervention (n = 35 in each). The patients in the control group were visited via routine appointments. In contrast, the patients in the intervention group were visited both routinely and via scheduled appointments by a fixed member of the family for 20 minutes at 10-12 AM and 8-10 PM for three days. The data were collected using a demographic information form and Richmond Agitation Sedation Scale (RASS), which was completed by the researcher for each patient on the first day before and the third day after the intervention. The collected data were analyzed using IBM SPSS software (version 24) with the chi-square test, Fisher’s exact test, independent samples t-test, and Mann–Whitney U test. The significance level was considered less than 0.05. Results: The two groups were similar in terms of age, sex, level of consciousness, and history of hospitalization in the ICU and there was no statistically significant intergroup difference (P > 0.05). According to the results of Mann–Whitney U and chi-square tests, there was a significant difference between the groups in terms of agitation at the end of the study (P < 0.05). Conclusions: Scheduled appointments for ICU patients can reduce patients’ agitation without affecting nurses’ care activities. This accelerates the recovery process for patients. Hence, the appointment-based policy needs to be implemented in ICUs.