I'm trying to heal...noise levels in a pediatric intensive care unit.

The literature demonstrates clearly that most intensive care units exceed the standard recommendations for noise levels in hospitals, and that high noise levels have negative impacts on patients and staff. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the level of noise in a PICU and compare it to the recommendations of international bodies. We outline recommendations to promote the awareness of this problem and suggest strategies to decrease the level of noise in a PICU. The orientations of these strategies are threefold: 1) architectural-acoustic design, 2) equipment design and, most importantly, 3) staff education.