ELECTRONIC PAPER

Acoustics and psychosocial environment in intensive coronary care

V Blomkvist¹, C A Eriksen¹, T Theorell¹, R Ulrich², G Rasmanis³

¹ National Institute for Psychosocial Factors and Health, Stockholm, Sweden
² Center for Health Systems and Design, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA
³ Department of Cardiology, Huddinge University Hospital, Karolinska Institute, Sweden

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
DrV Blomkvist
Department of Public Health Care, Uppsala University, Sweden; vanja.blomkvist{at}pubcare.uu.se

Background: Stress, strain, and fatigue at the workplace have previously not been studied in relation to acoustic conditions.

Aims: To examine the influence of different acoustic conditions on the work environment and the staff in a coronary critical care unit (CCU).

Method: Psychosocial work environment data from start and end of each individual shift were obtained from three shifts (morning, afternoon, and night) for a one-week baseline period and for two four-week periods during which either sound reflecting or sound absorbing tiles were installed.

Results: Reverberation times and speech intelligibility improved during the study period when the ceiling tiles were changed from sound reflecting tiles to sound absorbing ones of identical appearance. Improved acoustics positively affected the work environment; the afternoon shift staff experienced significantly lower work demands and reported less pressure and strain.

Conclusions: Important gains in the psychosocial work environment of healthcare can be achieved by improving room acoustics. The study points to the importance of further research on possible effects of acoustics in healthcare on staff turnover, quality of patient care, and medical errors.

Keywords: coronary critical care; job strain; psychological stress; room acoustics; work environment

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Pope, D. S. (2008). Hospital Noise: Risk to Health and Safety. Hearing and Hearing Disorders: Research and Diagnostics 12: 40-47 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Rashid, M., Zimring, C. (2008). A Review of the Empirical Literature on the Relationships Between Indoor Environment and Stress in Health Care and Office Settings: Problems and Prospects of Sharing Evidence. Environment and Behavior 40: 151-190 [Abstract]