Listening to Music During Regional Anesthesia: Patients' Experiences and the Effect on Mood

PurposeMany patients experience a sense of anxiety and insecurity during the perianesthesia period. It is important to the care relationship that the nurse be able to help the patient to establish a degree of control over their situation and thus regain their own sense of security. Music therapy can be a useful tool to accomplish this. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of a music intervention on patient's mood and self-reported satisfaction.DesignA multimodal research design using an open-ended interview and quantitative anxiety scale was used.MethodsA total of 15 patients were interviewed with an open question in addition to completing the Hospital Anxiety and Depression (HAD) scale. The interviews were analyzed using qualitative content analysis and the HAD scale according to standard practice.FindingsAn analysis of the interviews revealed a main theme: a feeling of satisfaction, and three subthemes: positive experience, inner peace, and detachment from reality. It emerged from the interviews that it was important for the patients to select music themselves. Patients had a positive experience, inner peace, and detachment from reality with changes in the patients' state of mind before and after the musical intervention. The anxiety level significantly decreased (P = .019) after the patients listened to music during surgery compared with the prevalence of anxiety before listening to music.ConclusionsThis study shows that music has a positive impact on patients undergoing anesthesia.