Acute patients The healthcare world is filled with noise; alarms, people chatting, cleaners pushing carts and much more. It becomes so familiar that staff doesn’t even think about it, repressing it becomes second nature. So it may be easy to forget that the patient is probably having a completely different experience. Especially an acute patient […]
patient experience
Serene low-risk births in Birmingham
Low-risk “Given the difficulty of communicating with some of our patients, it was important to create an environment where they could feel safe and supported by our midwives,” says Paul Scott, capital projects manager at the City Hospital in Birmingham. The Serenity Midwifery Birth Centre provides low-risk women with a tranquil, state-of-the-art place to give birth. “It was an […]
Birth pool considers acoustics to create a calming environment
A midwifery-led birth center that opened in 2010 at City Hospital in Birmingham has won The National Royal College of Midwives Award for “your Birth in our home”. It was judged by the President of the RCM and the committee of judges. The award was presented by Natasha Kaplinski at The Brewery, London. The Serenity […]
Critically ill in the sound intensive ICU
The conception that critically ill patients are too ill to reflect on their sound environment in the intensive care unit needs to be revised. This was one of the conclusions Swedish researchers made in a qualitative study on patient experiences of their stay in intensive care. Patients gave vivid descriptions of how they both felt […]
Sleep in the ICU – review of current knowledge
A new article on the current knowledge of sleep disturbances in the ICU was featured in the latest issue of Acta Anaesthesiologica Scandinavia. Sleep disturbances in the ICU environment are a significant problem and have many underlying causes. However are a difficult phenomenon to observe due to the physical status of the patient group. This […]
Too noisy to sleep? Let the hospital know
Nighttime noise can be devastating and too noisy to recover during a hospital stay. Silent Hospitals Help Healing Through its Silent Hospitals Help Healing Committee, the Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix is making a conscious effort to improve the sound situation in the hospital by involving the patients. By sending “noise alerts” when […]