The Child Visitor in Intensive Care Unit: A Prepared Visit

Abstract

Intensive care units are places for providing advanced technical support in units where you encounter a potentially hostile and impressive visual, olfactive, and auditory environment. Patients have a severe health condition with an uncertain prognosis for survival. Considering both the threatened life and the hostile environment, the visit of a child who is vulnerable and innocent may arouse fears and reluctances within the nursing staff. Nevertheless, we consider it relevant to bring up an organization to watch over the visiting child (even young ones). This visit can allow the child to share with the rest of the family his (her) own real-life experience of the situation and to stay connected with his (her) hospitalized relative. Being able to put words and images on the situation is a way to soothe fears and fantasies that occur when children are kept in ignorance. This visit must be accompanied and prepared by the whole team; its organization requires several preliminary steps. This initiative implies the accompaniment of a psychologist who will analyse the request, the psychological implications, the family system, and prepare the child. We present through this article, a series of steps to follow to accompany the child visitor to the intensive care unit).