Summary
Environmental concerns about the delivery of warning messages in intensive care units exist in the belief that conventional non-verbal alarm signals are perceived to be threatening by some patients. There is also a significant opportunity for error in interpretation by fatigued or anxious personnel. A laboratory study was undertaken to determine whether human subjects made fewer errors when messages regarding ICU related tasks were delivered by tape recorded human voice than by the non-verbal signals derived from devices in the ICU. Results demonstrated a statistically significant superiority of human voice messages over non-verbal signals. It is concluded that taped human voice messages merit field trials in intensive care units.
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McIntyre, J.W.R., Nelson, T.M. Application of automated human voice delivery to warning devices in an intensive care unit: A laboratory study. J Clin Monit Comput 6, 255–262 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01733631
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01733631