Characterizing the acoustic environment in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

In this work, noise sources were studied in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) by evaluating the noise from various sources, including the influence of the work of the NICU staff. The objective was to evaluate the acoustic quality in the usual conditions in NICU rooms and inside incubators by monitoring the noise in both environments, and then data were processed using artificial neural networks. Although some types of noise were accurately classified in this way, the lack of uniformity of their sound spectra, their simultaneity, and concomitance hindered the unequivocal interpretation of some results with the classification models. After analyzing the results, it can be affirmed that the alarms of equipment had a remarkable influence on the acoustic environment. Other important influences also appeared due to the conversations of the staff, the use of the telephone, and the hauling of equipment and furniture.