PERSONNEL RESPONSE IN INTENSIVE CARE UNITS

摘要

Previous studies indicate that the sound environments normally present at hospitals in general and intensive care units in particular, may pose a risk for prolonged patient recovery and for the personnel, disruption of concentration, increased tiredness and possibly more errors. As part of a larger study of the effects of the sound environment in intensive care units (ICU), personnel response was studied using a work environment questionnaire. The individual noise exposure was measured using noise dosimeters. In total 51 personnel answered the questionnaire. Of those, 44% reported to be rather, very or extremely annoyed by the noise in the ICU. The most frequently reported symptom was tiredness that occurred at least some time every week among 53% of the respondents. Noise annoyance was correlated to the symptom factors "auditory fatigue" and "mental fatigue". The results will be discussed in relation to response from other personnel groups of similar distribution of gender, education and age from primary health care, offices and pre-schools.