Sources of noise and their effects on nurses in intensive care units: A cross sectional study
Zahra Kooshanfar, Sadra Ashrafi, Ezzat Paryad, Yalda Salmanghasem, Tahereh Khaleghdoost Mohammadi, Ehsan Kazemnezhad Leili, Seyyed Mohammad Javad Golhosseini
Abstract
Noise is a serious threat to the health of people. In Intensive Care Units (ICU), the higher level of noise may negatively affect the health of the patients and health care staff. To determine the sources of noise and the related adverse effects from the ICU nurses’ viewpoints. The study sample included all nurses (148) working in ICUs. The data collection tool was a three-section questionnaire. The first section was related to personal- occupational characteristics. The second part evaluated internal and external noise sources from the nurses' viewpoints. The third section assessed the effect of noise on four domains: physiology, emotions, subjective perception, and performance. The data were analyzed by SPSS version 22, using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results showed that the major internal sources of noise were monitoring alarms and ventilators (61.5%).The highest and lowest mean ± SD of the scores about the effect of noise on the study domains were related to physiology (16.1 ± 4.8) and performance (14.9 ± 5.25). The three domains' scores (subjective perception, emotions, physiology) had significant relationship with the bed occupancy rate, the type of ICU, and the number of beds (P < 0.05). Also, the performance domain's scores had a significant relationship with work experience, bed occupancy rate, and shift type (P < 0.05). Since ambient noise is a threat to health and disturbs the patients and ICU staff, we believe that proper strategies should be designed to reduce its levels.