The effectiveness of environmental strategies on noise reduction in a pediatric intensive care unit: Creation of single-patient bedrooms and reducing noise sources : The Effectiveness of Environmental Strategies on Noise Reduction in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit

Reliance on physiological monitors to continuously "watch" patients and to alert the nurse when a serious rhythm problem occurs is standard practice on monitored units. Alarms are intended to alert clinicians to deviations from a predetermined "normal" status. However, alarm fatigue may occur when the sheer number of monitor alarms overwhelms clinicians, possibly leading to alarms being disabled, silenced, or ignored. Excessive numbers of monitor alarms and fear that nurses have become desensitized to these alarms was the impetus for a unit-based quality improvement project. Small tests of change to improve alarm management were conducted on a medical progressive care unit. The types and frequency of monitor alarms in the unit were assessed. Nurses were trained to individualize patients' alarm parameter limits and levels. Monitor software was modified to promote audibility of critical alarms. Critical monitor alarms were reduced 43% from baseline data. The reduction of alarms could be attributed to adjustment of monitor alarm defaults, careful assessment and customization of monitor alarm parameter limits and levels, and implementation of an interdisciplinary monitor policy. Although alarms are important and sometimes life-saving, they can compromise patients' safety if ignored. This unit-based quality improvement initiative was beneficial as a starting point for revamping alarm management throughout the institution.

Excessive noise is becoming a significant problem for intensive care units (ICUs). This paper first reviews the impact of noise on patients' sleep in ICUs. Five previous studies have demonstrated such impacts, whereas six other studies have shown other factors to be more important. Staff conversation and alarms are generally regarded as the most disturbing noises for patients' sleep in ICUs. Most research in this area has focused purely on noise level, but work has been very limited on the relationships between sleep quality and other acoustic parameters, including spectrum and reverberation time. Sound-absorbing treatment is a relatively effective noise reduction strategy, whereas sound masking appears to be the most effective technique for improving sleep. For future research, there should be close collaboration between medical researchers and acousticians.

The aims of the study were to examine the studies related to hospital noise in intensive care units (ICUs) to understand the sources and effects of noise and to describe best practices and common problems in the varying methods commonly applied to reduce the noise level.