Uncontrolled experimental study. Aim: quantify the impact noise of the 23 incubators functioning in the intensive and intermediate care units of a public university hospital in Ribeirão Preto-SP. Methodology: measuring occurred during incubator manipulation in a careful and in a rough way, considering the impact noise generated by the various situations in which the incubator was manipulated. Results: In practically all manipulation situations in both the careful and the rough way, group B presented higher NPS, followed by group A and D. Group C demonstrated the lowest NPS during the different manipulation situations. Even careful manipulation generated a strong noise level, and NPS almost always doubled or tripled when the same situation was realized roughly. Careful manipulation, together with lower incubator use time, revealed to be effective in reducing the noise produced during equipment manipulation.
noise; noise control; noise measurement; speech; language and hearing sciences; neonatal nursing
