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Learning Objective 1: know the guidelines for controlling night time noise and light in an intensive care unit.
Learning Objective 2: know the efficacy of the above guidelines for improving sleep quality of surgical patients.
Methods: The study was a quasiexperimental design, with 55 surgical patients recruited from an intensive care unit in Taiwan. There were two phases in the study. From December 2007 to Feb 2008, data on 27 control participants’ sleep quality were collected. From Feb to May 2008, guidelines of modifying nurses’ behavior geared toward noise and light pollution reduction was implemented and then data on 28 intervention participant were collected. Statistical analyses included descriptive statistics, Chi-Square tests, t-tests, and Generalized Estimating Equation.
Results: The results of Generalized Estimating Equation analysis showed that peak noise level and average noise level measured with a decibel meter were reduced significantly from 59.2 (SD: 4.5) to 51.3 (SD: 3.9) (X2 = 50.1, p < .001), and 57.7 (SD: 4.5) to 50.1 (SD: 4.0) (X2 = 46.5, p < .001) respectively after implementing the study intervention. The perceived noise (t = -2.07, p = .046) and the perceived sleep interruptions from the ICU care activities (t = 5.282, P < 0.001) and noises (t = 4.361, P < 0.001) were all significantly lower in experimental group than that in the control group. The experimental group also reported significantly better sleep quality (t = -2.28, p = .027) and sleep efficiency (t = -2.03, p = .047) than the control group did.
Conclusion: These results support the efficacy of the behavior modification guidelines on controlling night time noise and improving patients’ sleep quality.
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