Managing Shifting Visitor Restrictions in Hospitals during the COVID-19 Pandemic from National Authority Level to Charge Nurses’ Practice: A Descriptive Study
Table 2
Charge nurses’ information sources, understanding, handling, and communication of the visitor restrictions.
Research question
Options
First wave
Second wave
N = 71
n
(%)
n
(%)
How did you as leader get information about current visitor restrictions?†
Hospital board of directors
37
(52)
39
(55)
Head of department
36
(51)
39
(55)
Regional electronic guidelines
42
(59)
43
(61)
Hospital hygiene team
14
(20)
11
(15)
Hospital intranet (website)
53
(75)
54
(76)
News media
5
(7)
7
(10)
Other sources‡§
9
(13)
10
(14)
How did you pass on the information about visitor restriction to your staff?†
Daily meetings
50
(70)
Work e-mails
43
(61)
Weekly meetings
17
(24)
New letters
52
(73)
Posters
24
(34)
Other sources¶
6
(6)
How clear was the wording of the visitor restrictions to understand?
Very clear
24
(34)
35
(49)
Clear
24
(34)
26
(37)
Unclear
15
(21)
9
(13)
(Missing)
8
(11)
1
(1)
How did you as leader experience handling the visitor restrictions in practice?
Easy
24
(34)
Normal
22
(31)
Challenging
24
(31)
(Missing)
1
(1)
How often have you deviated from visitor restrictions paying regard to patients and their relatives?
Never
3
(4)
2
(3)
Rarely
11
(16)
12
(17)
Monthly
8
(12)
5
(7)
Weekly
34
(49)
38
(54)
Daily
13
(19)
14
(20)
(Missing)
2
(3)
0
(0)
†More than one option was possible. ‡First wave: not relevant (n = 3), patients and family (n = 1), the National Health Authority (n = 3), posters (n = 1), and other charge nurses (n = 1). §Second wave: not relevant (n = 3), patients and family members (n = 1), the National Health Authority (n = 3), other charge nurses (n = 1), development charge nurse (n = 1), social media (n = 1). ¶By the department’s intranet (n = 1).
