Does Music have a Role to Play in the Operating Theater in Helping to Relieve the Stress of Surgical Professionals?

Abstract

Music has always been present in the operating theater, sometimes being useful and other times causing a disturbance. My study was to find the correlation between music and surgical professionals in the operating theater. I used a survey that was sent out to surgical professionals to gather evidence for my paper. This survey consisted of five short questions that would allow me to acquire detailed evidence. Only five surgical professionals responded. Out of the 5 responses, 2 people responded saying they do listen to music in the operating theater. One responder is a nurse and the other is an anesthesiologist. The remaining 3 responders stated that they do not listen to music in the operating theater. 2 are nurses and 1 is also a surgeon. Then, I used studies from other researchers to add to my paper. Some stated that music helped reduce stress, and others said that music was a disturbance. One paper stated that music improved the surgical teams' efficiency and focus. Which improved the patients' recovery process. Meanwhile, others argued that music caused a distraction in the operating theater since the surgical team would have to scream over each other to get instructions across. Some surgical professionals would even zone out during their surgical procedures due to music. However, despite the evidence I found through my survey and literature, I did not have enough to conclude a statement about music and surgical professionals in the operating theater.