The effect of soothing sound machines and meditation using CD players on relaxation in acute care orthopedic patients

Abstract

This research studied the relaxation effect in orthopedic surgical patients using guided meditation or soothing sounds (SS) machines. The study used a comparative study design to evaluate differences in the effect of SS or guided meditation on patients’ perceptions of relaxation. IRB approval was obtained prior to initiating the study. A convenience sample of orthopedic surgery patients consented to voluntarily rate their perceptions of relaxation on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from “none”, “mild”, “moderate”, “good” or “very good”. A demographic survey was used to describe the sample. The sample included 50 patients with ages ranging from 40 to 70 years. Seventy-eight percent (78%) of the sample was female and 22% were male. The participant selection of relaxation type was 82% soothing sounds machines, meditation 12%, and both (SS machines and meditation) 6%. The response rate was 100% for the guided meditation as compared to the 93% response rate for the SS machine. The greatest relaxation change was noted for the guided meditation (66.5% good to very good) as compared to the SS machines (63.5% good to very good). Both SS machines and guided meditation improved relaxation with greater than 82% rating moderate to very good change. More patients selected SS machines over guided meditation. The active process for guided meditation provided a higher relaxation rating than the passive process using soothing sounds machines.

Keywords

• soothing sounds
• meditation
• integrative therapies
• patient experience