Trouble sleeping in the hospital? Maybe it's that ...( g in the chart holders outside patient ...),Health

g in the chart holders outside patient rooms and in the pneumatic tube document-delivery system
- Replacing noisy roll-type paper towel dispensers with silent folded-towel dispensers
- Routinely closing doors to patients' rooms
- Modifying cardiac monitor settings to allow for lower volumes in the patient rooms, but with additional alarms sounding at the nurses' station
- Changing nightly chest X-ray times to 10 p.m. instead of 3 a.m.
- Using flashlights instead of overhead lights when entering patients' rooms
- Staff education to help draw attention to the issue and to share noise control measures

Noise levels were recorded again after the interventions, and the peak at shift change was reduced to 86 decibels, a reduction of more than 80 percent. (A 10-decibel reduction is equal to a 50 percent drop in sound intensity.) The average overnight noise level was reduced from 45 decibels originally to 42 decibels after the changes. Nearly two-thirds of the patients commenting in a satisfaction survey about noise and sleep issues gave positive feedback on the closed doors, general unit quietness and the willingness of staff to ensure a quiet night of sleep.

Cmiel hopes the results from her group's study will encourage nursing teams elsewhere to investigate barriers to sleep in their units, and take action. "The first step is to survey patients and ask what noises are interfering with their sleep," Cmiel says. "Problems in a given environment may be different from our experience, and noises patients find disturbing are not always apparent to nursing staff. But it's worth the effort; reductions of even a few decibels can improve sleep and help patients get the rest they need to heal."

Co-authors of the paper include Dana Karr, Dawn Gasser, Loretta Oliphant and Amy Neveau. The original leader of the sleep promotion team was Jean Henderson, now at Innovis Health in Fargo, N.D.

'"/>

Contact: Lee Aase
newsbureau@mayo.edu
507-284-5005
Mayo Clinic
4-Feb-2004

Page: 1 2
Related medicine news :

1. SIDS risk linked to lack of experience with tummy-sleeping
2. Promising diagnostic test for sleeping sickness
3. Does the sleeping brain wake up if only just a little with every snore?
4. Swaddling may help sleeping babies remain on their backs
5. Most definitive study of its kind shows that sleeping on the stomach increases infant SIDS risk
6. Habitually sleeping more than 8 hours, need for daytime nap signal increased risk of death from stroke
7. Sleep less, live longer? Increased death rate associated with sleeping 8 hours or more