The sound environment in an ICU patient room—A content analysis of sound levels and patient experiences

Johansson, Lotta; Bergbom, Ingegerd; Waye, Kerstin Persson; Ryherd, Erica E.; Lindahl, Berit

doi:10.1016/j.iccn.2012.03.004

Cited by 80 publications

(90 citation statements)

References 34 publications

(43 reference statements)

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“…From a child's perspective, the high sounds from the alarms might be a source of stress. [7,8,12] The child that arrives at a PICU most likely have no prior experience of what to expect or meet. When they arrive, people talk loudly, alarms sound, cords become attached to their body and the ward smell is different.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The protocol was based on previous research that highlighted the alarms from the equipment, doors that opens/closes and conversations among staff as the worst sources of stress in terms of sound. [7][8][9] Number of alarms, from which monitor the alarm sounded and which patient alarm it concerned was registered in the observation protocol. The time span from when an alarm went off until the intervention took place, or the alarm was silenced, and which of the two that occurred first, was documented.…”

Section: The Observation Protocolmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Doors opens and closes with work related issues (obs. 1,5,6,7,8,10,11). The work is in the foreground and sound seems to be taken for granted as a work-related phenomenon, something that just is.…”

Section: The Room As a Workplacementioning

confidence: 99%

“…[6][7][8] The main sources of noise are conversations in the patient rooms, alarms from medical equipment and doors closing or opening. [7][8][9] In a review article Konkani and Oakley [8] compare several studies and conclude that the most frequent intervention to reduce high sound levels is education to change health care workers' attitudes and behavior. Hence, behaviors are closely linked to the caring culture in the department, which decides how children's caring needs are met and understood.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[11] High noise levels have been shown to increase stress in neonates [2] that lead to frustration or anxiety. [7] In fact, high sound levels can be the difference between life and death for a critically ill child due to the risk of high blood pressure, stimulated by stress deriving from high sound levels or other negative stimulation. [12] When the child experiences stress and the blood pressure arises, fragile blood vessels are at risk to burst and hemorrhage into the brain.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

The sound of potency: An observation study of nurses’ approach to sound in a pediatric intensive care unit

Mellgren

Mattsson

2017

CNS

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Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the nurses' approach to three sources of sound that contribute to high noise levels; alarms, doors that open and conversation. Methods: Methods used derived from a theoretical perspective based on interpretive phenomenology and caring culture. In the pediatric intensive care, the caregivers of the children work in a high-tech environment as they are surrounded by sound from several sources. How caregivers understand and acknowledge how these sounds negatively affect a child's well-being depends on their individual knowledge and awareness of how children are affected by sound. In most cases, coming into an intensive care unit is a new experience for a child. This causes greater stress, both from the environment itself as well as from sound levels. The method was built on a phenomenological perspective and an interpretive non-participation, semi-structured observations were conducted in a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) of one of Sweden's metropolitan regions in the winter of 2014-2015. Results: The results show that noise is an overlooked phenomenon in the pediatric intensive care environment as it has given way to other priorities in the nurse's work. It is also apparent that this depends on the department's caring culture as it prioritizes other things, resulting in normalizing high levels of noise as a part of the pediatric intensive care environment. Conclusions: Noise levels are not a priority in the department's caring culture. High noise levels are permitted unreflectedly and appears to be a token of potency and an accepted part of the health care environment.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Observation Protocolmentioning

confidence: 99%