Surveys on Noise in Some Hospital Wards and Self-Reported Reactions from Staff: A Case Study

Abstract

Noise in hospital wards adversely affects the physiological processes of both patients and staff and it is a potential risk for communication breakdowns and errors, causing discomfort and problems regarding the healing of patients, as well as stress, fatigue, and annoyance for staff. Several noise sources are present in the wards, such as HVAC systems, alarms, paging, speech, calls, diagnostic equipment, medical devices, and so forth. This paper describes two surveys carried out at an Italian hospital in Rome to investigate the noise in some wards and to collect self-reported assessments from staff about their working environments, even if such assessments were not required for occupational noise exposure evaluation. Self-reported staff evaluations of the working environment quality and the effects of noise on their performances should be investigated. For this purpose, in this study, questionnaires were designed and submitted to staff members. In addition, noise measurements were taken from short-, medium-, and long-term audio recordings processed to determine psychoacoustic parameters, e.g., loudness, sharpness, roughness, and fluctuation strength. Their applications in enclosed spaces can provide additional information on some features of the noise observed in hospital wards, which may influence the perceptions and relevant extra-auditory effects. Even though the results cannot be generalized, they encourage the development of a methodology for noise surveys in hospital wards, including noise measurements and “ad hoc” questionnaires to collect self-reported reactions from exposed staff members.

Experimental Evaluation of Noise Exposure Effects on Subjective Perceptions and Cognitive Performance

“…As suggested by reports from the World Health Organization (WHO) [1,8] and the European Environment Agency (EEA) [1,9], noise exposure is a major public health threat affecting both physical and mental health. Many studies have focused on the relationship between noise exposure and people's health [10][11][12][13]. A common health problem is noiseinduced hearing loss.…”

A survey methodology for noise in hospital wards

“…In the literature, a clear correlation emerges between noise level, number and frequency of noise events, and disturbance on users (both in patients, during night hours, and in medical personnel, during working hours). For this reason, many studies place the subjective user response alongside the objective measurement data, by analyzing psychoacoustic parameters [10], generally used in soundscape analyses [11,12] combined with quantitative surveys, based on questionnaires or qualitative surveys, using post-hospitalization interviews, [13][14][15][16][17][18]. Since studies are conducted in various ways, there is a need for a more comprehensive standardization strategy to balance noise measurement procedures in indoor hospital environments [9].…”

A Comparative Study of Acoustic Regulations for Hospital Bedrooms in Selected Countries in Europe

“…The study by Lam et al [19] revealed that personnel perceived the overall acoustic quality of hospitals as less suitable than patients and visitors did. Lo Castro et al [22] demonstrated that the acoustic environment in several hospitals was reported as largely noisy by the personnel and was correlated with the concentration loss.…”