Signal in the Noise

Hospitals are noisy places, an assault on the ears. Yet as a medical student grows familiar with the array of beeps, whistles, and shouts, cacophony gives way to music. And the rest beats of nighttime allow one to notice and address the softest sounds. The first time I heard an IV pump beeping was my first time in the hospital as a medical student. Sent to examine a loud, cantankerous patient, I became concerned when his IV pump began frantically shrieking. After 30 seconds of panic and uncertainty, I pulled a resident out of the hall into the patient's room, where, in a maneuver that shocked me then but has since become part of my repertoire, she promptly hit the “Silence Alarm” button and continued with her own work. Hospitals are noisy places, an assault on the ears. As a new visitor, I was . . .