Impact of Music in the Operating Room: EBP

Operating rooms are dynamic environments that contain essential equipment to maintain life. A critical appraisal of evidence was done to examine the impact music has in the operating room on intraoperative errors and patient outcomes. Several different search engines (CINAHL Complete, PubMed, and Nursing and Allied Health Source) were used to gather recent articles that examined the effect of music in the operating room. Keywords used in searching for articles included different combinations of the following: operating room, nursing, errors, distractions, music, safety, and patient outcomes. Exclusions included pediatric surgeries and articles published prior to 2011. Critical phases during surgery were identified as induction and emergence of anesthesia, skin preparation, and wound closure. This critical appraisal of evidence includes cohort studies, survey studies, case studies, and systematic reviews. Several studies showed that added distractions, such as music, during this critical phase negatively impacted patients and increasing their risk for infection. 60% of the articles used in this critical appraisal found that music must be limited or not present during the critical phases. Results from a systematic review included in the critical appraisal discovered that the anesthesiologist surveyed found music present in the operating room hampers the ability to safely induce, reverse, and maintain anesthesia. Also, the noise level in the operating room frequently excess the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommendations. Implications for practice include the need for “hard stops” and strict protocols that outline when music can/can’t be on in the operating room. After examining several studies that focused on the impact of noise and music on patient outcomes, a definitive conclusion could not be made. Generally, music does impact the patient and healthcare team members. Systematic reviews should be done on this topic to close the literature gap and determine the best practice guidelines/protocols in the operating room environment.