Also, if you are sick, don't go. Some patients may have very compromised immune systems and your own illness might be passed along to very ill effect. When you arrive Get in, get out should be your plan once you find out if your patient is open for visitation, said Jan Welborn, instructor with the Abilene Intercollegiate School of Nursing. Welborn recommends visitors plan to spend no more than 10 minutes during their actual visit. Any more may threaten to become burdensome both to care providers and to the patient.
Visitors can exhaust the patient.
Knock before entering, even if it's your closest relative. But before even doing that, you need to read the handwriting on the wall, so to speak. Doctors and patients can make their wishes known through signs outside of the room, so if there are any, be sure to pay attention to them. Special care needs to be taken if the patient is sharing a room with someone else, Stolz said. When you are visiting someone in a semi-private room, that is an even more important rule of thumb.