Health
Overnight noise levels at hospitals as loud as jackhammers
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Feb. 23, 2004
Patients in need of rest to recuperate from surgery should perhaps be provided with earplugs for their hospital stays, according to Mayo Clinic research, which was published in the February issue of the American Journal of Nursing.
Researchers measured the decibel levels in empty patient hospital rooms from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. and also spent a night in the hospital. Conditions in the rooms mimicked those typically experienced by a thoracic surgery patient.
"We wanted to experience the patient's perspective, so we became patients for one night," said Cheryl Cmiel, RN, the lead author on the paper. "We got an earful."
Peak noise levels were measure at 113 decibels, roughly the equivalent to the noise of a chainsaw or a jackhammer. Those noises came at the time of the morning shift change, around 7 a.m., although the 11 p.m. shift change was also noisy.
Among the suggested changes to address noise levels: change the staff reporting site at shift changes to an enclosed room rather than the nurses station; place foam rubber padding in the chart holders outside patient rooms and in the pneumatic tube document-delivery system; replace roll-type paper towel dispensers with silent folded-towel dispensers; routinely close the doors to patients' rooms and use flashlights, not the overhead lights, when entering rooms.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/02/23/hlbf0223.htm.
