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Reduction of noise levels in intensive care units for infants: evaluation of an intervention program
1Care Research Unit, University of Lund, Sweden.
Objective:
To investigate whether educational information for nurses concerning causes of noise would decrease noise levels in an intensive care unit for term newborns and infants.
Design:
Pretest and posttest.
Setting:
Children's surgical ward in a university hospital in southern Sweden.
Subjects:
Fifty-two nurses in the surgical ward.
Outcome Measures:
Noise levels.
Intervention:
An educational program consisting of a presentation of a videotape, presentation of the decibel values for various care activities, and a discussion of the problem.
Results:
Statistical analysis with a paired two-tailed t test showed significant differences to exist between measurements in a cot and an incubator before the intervention (p = 0.0001), and between cot measurements before and after the intervention program (p = 0.0007).
Conclusions:
The results of this study show that through simple methods and without additional costs, and by making the staff aware of the problem, noise levels can be lowered considerably.
