Listening in A+E: using to sound to create a more care-ful hospital

Over the past year, lecturer in Creative Practice and Performance, Dr Alex de Little, has continued to work with Dr Jo Sutton-Klein (University of Manchester) with the support of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine. De Little has been using Deep Listening as a methodology for exploring new ways of thinking about sound in hospital spaces and considering how A&E departments can become more ‘care-ful’ spaces.

This research has involved inviting healthcare professionals at Manchester Royal Infirmary to keep ‘listening journals’ during their work shifts. Staff were introduced to a range of Deep Listening techniques and then asked to listen on shift, documenting the sounds they noticed, how these shaped their ability to work, and their wider experiences of the emergency department. The findings highlight the hidden labour of listening, the impact of sound on staff, and the ways patients and staff experience sound differently. These insights will inform conversations with NHS managers that may lead to proposals for improving the ED soundscape.

Going forward, De Little plans to publish a sonic ethnography using his findings from the listening journals.