Effects of noise
1) SLEEP DISRUPTION: For a good night’s sleep, continuous background noise should not exceed 30 dB, and individual noise events exceeding 45 dB should be avoided (1). Average nighttime noise levels in hospitals are over 60 dB (2).
2) FEELINGS OF HELPLESSNESS: Sounds from neighboring patients and from advanced medical treatments and equipment are perceived as disturbing and can create feelings of helplessness and make it difficult to find the peace and calm that are essential for recovery and well-being (3).
3) HEARING: Infants discharged from NICUs are around seven times more likely to get some form of hearing impairment than others (4).
4) STRESS: High sound levels (70–80 dB) have been reported to increase the infant’s heart rate and respiration rate, and also lower the infant’s oxygenation level (5).
5) HOW STAFF IS PERCEIVED: A Swedish hospital was studied before and after acoustic treatment. Not only did the patients after the acoustic intervention require less medication, but they also considered the staff attitude to be much better than during the period with poor acoustics.
Excerpt from a patient’s narrative – A night in the ICU (6):
Three physicians had come into the room and I heard everything they said very clearly. I became paralyzed when I realized that I had to stay in the room and listen to all that. I was too tired to get up and leave. I did not even have the strength to tell the staff how I felt or ask for help. I just lay there, scared and terrified but quiet and calm on the outside.
The conversations among the physicians and nurses lasted for what I thought were hours. After a while, they started some kind of treatment and I understood that the man might not survive. I was exhausted but I did not know what to do. That night I didn’t sleep at all and it was one of the longest nights of my life.
References:
- Berglund et al., “Guidelines for community noise”, Technical Report 1999, World Health Organization
- Weinstein, University of California, Berkeley, Journal of applied psychology, 1974, vol 59, no 5, p548-554
- Johansson et al., “The sound environment in an ICU patient room – a content analysis of sound levels and patient experiences”, Intensive and Critical Care Nursing Journal, Oct 2012, 28(5), p269-279
- Johannes van der Berg, Care for Sound, Sound Environment, Healing & Health Care, Publications from Sound Environment Center at Lund University n. 12, 2014, p27-429
- Johannes van der Berg, Care for Sound, Sound Environment, Healing & Health Care, Publications from Sound Environment Center at Lund University n. 12, 2014, p27-429
- Johansson et al., Meanings of Being Critically Ill in a Sound-Intensive ICU Patient Room – A Phenomenological Hermeneutical Study, The Open Nursing Journal, 2012, 6, p.108-116
