Comparing the sound environments in two critical care settings.

Abstract

Critical care nurses perform crucial tasks in complicated sound environments. The existence of many different noise sources (i.e., staff conversation, medical alarms, etc.) with different sound qualities cause nurses to experience constantly changing acoustic conditions while providing care for critically ill. Some of those acoustical qualities in critical care settings can negatively affect nurse well‐being and task performance. In different critical care settings, the acoustic qualities can vary. Some architectural qualities of those settings can be an indicator of those variations. In this study, we documented the detailed objective and subjective sound environment of two critical care settings with different architectural layouts. The comparative analyses are used to understand the differences between two acoustic settings and the relationship between subjective and objective sound environments. Perceived qualities of the physical work environments are examined to explore the association between architectural features and acoustic qualities.