An investigation of the effect of noise on vital signs and levels of anxiety levels of patients hospilitazed in general surgery intensive care unit

Noise is a disturbing noise that has no obvious structure and can affect the person physically or psychologically. Noise is an important problem, especially in intensive care units. The World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines suggest hospital noise levels should 40 dB(A) in the daytime and 35 dB(A) at night. This study has been made to determine the effect of noise in General Surgery Intensive Care Unit on vital signs and anxiety level of inpatients. This is a descriptive study were 77 patients determined through power analysis, which has been study consisted of patients who agree to participate in the study and meet the criteria for participation of the study in the GSICU of T.C. Ministry of Health Turkey Public Hospitals Institution Adana Numune Education and Research Hospital of the University of T.C. Health Sciences. Data set analysis was conducted by using SPSS version 22.0. A permission is also got from the the Ethics Committee for Non-Interventional Clinical Investigations and the General Secretary of the Association of Public Hospitals in Adana province before the investigation started. To collect data some forms had been used such as "Patient Presentation Form" which contains the characteristics of the patients, "State and Trait Anxiety Scale" which measures the anxiety levels of patients, "Visual Analog Scale (VAS)" which determines the pain levels of patients and "Vital Signs and Sound Level Measurement Forms" which shows the results of the vital signs measurement and noise level measurement. Patient monitors and tympanic thermometer had been used to detect vital signs of individuals and ambient noise level had been recorded using a sound level meter. İn conclusion of the investigation, the average noise level had been measured as 54.1±3.4 at 09.00, 53.9±3.9 at 15.00, 53.6±5.0 at 21.00 and 51.7±4.5 at 03.00. These measurements one over the value which was offered by WHO. The monitor sounds take part the first in GSİC between the factors causing noise. It had not been foundeed a (p ˃ 0.05) meaningful correlationbetween noise and State/Trait Anxiety, systolic/diastolic pressure, pulse, respiration,body temperature. İn accordance with the results having from the research, it had been made suggestions by defining hospital noise measurements and rearranging to international values which was offered fort he hospitals and minimizing the factors causing the noise. KeyWords: Noise, nurse, anxiety, vital signs, intensive care