Establishing healing soundscapes through musical soundscape interventions in hospitals

Abstract

During medical surgeries, music is often played without further sensibility for the type of music. Commonly the decision of the music selection lies solely with the operating surgeon. Few studies address the musical needs of healthcare workers during surgery. A better understanding of these needs could help to enrich the working environment of the operating theatre (OT) with music, thus improving the perioperative processes of treatment as well as the team dynamics of the treatment staff. In this article, we will present results and discuss two approaches regarding music and sound in the OT. At first, current results are presented in which clinical treatment staff (N=119) were asked about their musical needs in the OT. Then, coming from the perspective of musical soundscape intervention (MSI), the Healing Soundscape Project is presented with its interdisciplinary framework, practical implementation, and previous research. Both perspectives will be discussed to further develop a musical soundscape intervention in the OT.