ABSTRACT
Sound generated in a ward can be classified into 1) generated by medical staff, 2) generated by patients and their visitors, and 3) others, such as from in-hospital broadcasting microphones and nurse calls. Among these sounds, the incidence from medical staff, in particular, is reportedly high. The study objective is to investigate whether sound awareness is effective in regulating the sound environment even in a busy situation, such as in a real clinical setting, and to examine the extent to which sound awareness affects sound level. Nursing students were asked to perform a series of nursing activities in a pseudo-ward, and the changes in the sound level generated during the nursing activities with or without time and sound awareness were examined. Under varying experimental conditions, the sound and time levels associated with the nursing activities were measured in the following order: condition 1, without sound or time awareness; condition 2, with time awareness but without sound awareness; and condition 3, with both sound and time awareness. The time to perform nursing activities was longer with sound awareness. However, when aware of time only, the sound level from nursing activities rose by 2.3 dB, whereas when aware of both time and sound, the sound level dropped by 3.0 dB. With both time and sound awareness, there is a distinct drop in the sound level from nursing activities, such as wagon handling, handling of items (trays, bowls), working at the sink, and opening and closing the microwave oven door. These results suggest that even in a pseudo-clinical setting it is possible to regulate the environmental sound through the environmental sound awareness of the medical staff, resulting in a drop in the sound level generated while performing nursing activities.