1.1. Background
CRITICAL ILLNESS
The Surgical and Pediatric Intensive Care Units (SICU and PICU) require multidisciplinary teams that consist of, but are not limited to, intensivists (clinicians who specialize in critical illness care), pharmacists and nurses, respiratory care therapists, and other medical consultants from a broad range of specialties including surgery, anesthesiology and other specialties. The ideal ICU will have a team representing dozens of different health care professionals and practitioners who assist in patient evaluation and treatment. The intensivists will provide treatment management, diagnosis, interventions, and individualized care for each patient recovering from severe illnesses. This complex matrix of intensive care is accompanied by a number of factors contributing to significant patient and staff stress. Prevalent among these resultantly noxious stimuli is noise generated from multiple sources, and include triple-beat alarms, staff conversations, the drone of noise coming from bedside dialysis machines, and a myriad of other sounds that contribute to a sub-optimal environment for healing [