Music and Nature at the Bedside: Part II of a Two-part Series | Research Design Connections

Two sets of smoky glass doors slide open automatically, widening onto a blank corridor of sterile linoleum. The walls are nondescript, with overhead fluorescent lights and painted arrows on the floor. The sounds are a combination of crying, laughing, talking, machinery, beepers, Muzak®, loudspeakers, all mixed together with an ominous silence. Upon entering the aloneness of the hospital room, the sounds continue to intrude beyond the four visible walls. The noises are exaggerated, distorted, unending. The din coming from everywhere soon blends into the still characterless walls, never yielding to the fear it creates, enrolling all present in its relentless chorus. (Mazer, 1994)