Prevalence of Hoarseness in Primary Health Care and Hospitals-Associations With Different Work Tasks and Environmental Factors Among Nurses

Professional voice use in health and nursing care - Time for reconsideration? A scoping review

BACKGROUND

Communication is a key tool in the nursing profession. It is known that listeners are sensitive to the speaker's voice and interpret the speaker's intentions primarily from the non-verbal signal conveyed.

AIM

To map and discuss the current state of knowledge and research evidence on professional voice use in health and nursing care.

DESIGN AND METHOD

A scoping review adherent to the EQUATOR guidelines PRISMA-ScR.

DATA SOURCES

Searches in the EBSCO, CINAHL, Medline, PubMed, PsychInfo and PsycArticles databases were conducted between 1 and 28 February 2023.

RESULTS

According to the data (n =  23), health professionals use voice as a vital aspect of caring communication and caring relationships, and in leadership as well as inter-professional collaboration, to facilitate information exchange and understanding and promote shared decision-making. The data showed that there is also a rising tendency to explore vocal demands and problems among health professionals. No studies were found on the use of voice in digital health and nursing care services or by social robots. Most of the reviewed studies were cross-sectional, rather small, and focused primarily on the perspectives of healthcare professionals.

CONCLUSION

The use of voice should be explored as a vital aspect of caring communication and caring relationships from the patients' perspective, and the effects of voice use on listeners' emotions and actions should be examined in different contexts with modern, voice-specific data collection methods. Studies focusing on voice use in digital health care and by social robots are also needed. By integrating training programmes, education and technological innovations, health care can leverage the full potential of voice-based communication to promote a more coordinated and patient-centred care environment, true inter-professional collaboration and effective leadership.

IMPACT

Professional voice use is an essential part of all health and nursing care and an impressive method that should be used consciously. Therefore, the meaning and methods of voice use, including speech accommodation, should be systematically introduced into health and nursing care and included in nursing education.

The prevalence of hoarseness among health care professionals: time trends and effect of remediation in working conditions in 2007-2018

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to investigate time trends in the prevalence of hoarseness among health care professionals in primary health care units (PHC) and in hospitals from 2007 to 2018. Moreover, purpose was to discover potential indoor environmental quality (IEQ) risk factors as well as to determine the effect of the remediation of the indoor air problems on the prevalence of hoarseness.

METHODS

The health status was collected from all employees in these units/hospitals (N = 1564/1199) with questionnaires and the follow-ups were carried out as an open cohort. Based on building condition inspections, buildings were classified to be an "exposed" or "reference" buildings by third-party experts. The before and after remediation results were compared to reference buildings.

RESULTS

During follow-up, hoarseness has not increased in those PHC units with good IEQ. In the pilot study, the prevalence of hoarseness in non-exposed reference building was 5.9%, and it stayed approximately at the same level throughout the follow-up. Whereas in buildings with an IEQ problem the prevalence of hoarseness varied between 16.2 and 36.1% and it decreased to 11.4% after the remediations. In a large hospital with severe IEQ problems, the prevalence of hoarseness was 39.1%, and in hospital buildings with a milder exposure 23.3%. The most important risk factors for hoarseness were asthma, allergic rhinitis and IEQ problems.

CONCLUSION

A good indoor environment and the remediation of damaged buildings seem to promote a better condition of the voice in health care workers.