The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of a Tranquility Training program on reducing unit noise and changing nurses' perception of organizational culture, knowledge of noise awareness, noise reduction strategies, and unit noise levels. The study is a time series, prospective, quasi-experimental pilot study. The Tranquility Training Program was implemented on the Pulmonary Telemetry Unit {PTU} at a 300-bed community hospital. Another Intermediate Care Unit {IMC} in the same hospital with a similar architectural layout, patient population, and nurse staffing ratio served as a control group. Noise was measured at three separate time periods: pre-intervention, one month after the intervention, and six months after the intervention. Staff surveys were completed before the intervention and six months after the intervention. At the one-month post-intervention follow-up, participants in both units demonstrated a desire to reduce noise and felt empowered to make an impact in noise reduction. These perceptions were sustained through to the six month follow-up. Both units reduced noise levels at the one-month follow-up but did not approach the levels recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency for hospitals. Although there was an increase in noise at six months from levels observed at one month, both units sustained a quieter level than baseline. There were no group (education vs. no-education) differences in noise or staff perception measures. It appears that the process of measuring noise over time may have resulted in noise reduction on both units.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-03102008-134126 |
| Date | 13 March 2008 |
| Creators | Carpico, Bronwynne Bailey |
| Contributors | Heidi Donovan, RN, PhD, Peter Draus, PhD, Susan Sereika, PhD |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-03102008-134126/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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