Tips for a quieter floor?

[abbysmom]

I work the night shift and have been asked to figure out how to make our unit quieter at night. The staff seems resistant to small changes, such as dimming the lights and silencing alarms quickly. Also, many people use their free time as social hour right outside patients' rooms. It can get loud. Any ideas on how a new nurse (a year in) can change perceptions, behavior, and make a quieter place for healing?

[April, RN, BSN, RN]

We have earplugs that we offer patients.

[locolorenzo22, BSN, RN]

often, it's not talking quieter that does it....it's the ER carts bringing admits, the maintence people going by with carts, the IV beeping, etc.....I do what I can, but a lot of it is out of control...

[NeosynephRN]

We do alot to try to keep the unit quiet at night...which is sometimes impossible, by the pure nature of being an ICU. On a stable night..lights out at 2200ish..I always turn my monitor alarms down to 10%..it only affect the volume in the room, not at the central station. I shut the curtains to the outside as well as the one on the window by my station ( that one only half way), so I can still see my patient and my monitors..IV's etc...and I will mostly close the door. We try to take breaks quietly and away from the majority of the patients, but often end up directly outside the most unstable patients room.

Although..this cannot always happen, there are nights that the lights are on all night and the noise is crazy...but we are typically trying to save someone and our priorities have to shift a bit.