Paper
Tuesday, November 6, 2007

555
This presentation is part of : Nursing Practice Initiatives
The Use of Rapid Assessment Techniques to Evaluate Noise on an In-Patient Unit
Paulette Kennedy, RN, BSN, CNA, BC, 3A/IPCU and 4A, Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network, Allentown, PA, USA, Lynn Deitrick, RN, PhD, Health Studies Unit, Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network, Allentown, Pa, Allentown, PA, USA, Carol Cyriax, RN, BSN, 4A, Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network, Allentown, PA, USA, and Nancy Davies-Hathen, RN, MSN, CNAA, BC, Patient Care Services, Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network, Allentown, PA, USA.
Learning Objective #1: list sources of environmental noise in the clinical setting.
Learning Objective #2: explain the use of rapid assessment methodology as a tool to evaluate clinical problems such as noise.
Introduction: Excess noise is a common problem in hospitals, and has been studied by researchers from around the world. Noise is defined as ‘unwanted sound.’ Studies indicate that the ‘average’ acceptable noise levels in an acute care setting range between 68-73 decibels. Common sources of noise in hospitals are from people, environment and machines. Our hospital ethnographer was asked by nursing leadership to do a rapid assessment of noise on one in-patient unit at our hospital due to complaints about noise from a physician and several patients on the unit.

 Methods: A rapid assessment was done on a busy, high traffic, high acuity med/surg telemetry unit over a 4 week period. Rapid assessment is an intensive, short term, team-based, multi-method process. The method consists of intensive, short term, triangulated data collection as well as an iterative process of data analysis.

 Results: Six main sources of environmental noise were identified. These include 1.conversational noise, 2. noise from doors that slam shut, 3. noise generated from the housekeeping closet/sink area and bed preparation team in the unit’s back hallway, 4. noise from the pneumatic tube station in the unit’s center hallway, 5. noise from shoes, particularly hard soled shoes clicking on the linoleum floors in the unit, and 6. miscellaneous noise from Wallaroos, call light consoles, equipment carts, and similar sources.

 Conclusions/Implications: Findings were reported to hospital administrators as well as to our facilities department so that work areas such as housekeeping closets, carts, door closers, and pneumatic tube stations can be modified to decrease audible noise in adjacent patient rooms. This study also demonstrates the value of rapid assessment methodology for the evaluation of clinical problems such as noise. Researchers at other institutions may want to use this method to evaluate noise in their institutions.

See more of Nursing Practice Initiatives
See more of The 39th Biennial Convention (November 3 -- 7, 2007)