Music in the Operating Theatre: Team Playlist or Team Quiet?

Oct 11

3 min read

Music in the operating theatre is one of those topics every theatre nurse has a view on.

Some lists start with the same playlist every week. Others run in near silence, with nothing but the monitors, the suction and the count.

This Coffee Break is another quick question, and we want your answers.

What the research says

In June 2026, University of Auckland researchers published a small study in Scientific Reports on how theatre staff experience music during surgery. Lead researcher Dr Anantha Narayanan and colleagues interviewed seven people: surgeons, anaesthetists and theatre nurses.

Seven people is a small sample, so it describes experiences rather than proving anything. One line from the university's summary stood out: “how music is chosen matters as much as what music is chosen.”

Participants described music chosen together lifting the mood and helping the team settle. Music imposed on everyone else could do the opposite, adding tension and reinforcing hierarchy. AusDoc's write-up of the study noted that control of the music often sat with the most senior person in the room or the operating surgeon.

Earlier research is more mixed. A 2015 UK study in the Journal of Advanced Nursing filmed 20 operations and recorded 5,203 requests and responses between team members. Repeated requests were five times more likely in cases where music was playing, and the authors noted that each repeated request can add 4 to 68 seconds to an operation.

A survey of 110 surgeons and registrars in South Africa, published in the South African Journal of Surgery, found that 80% said music was played in their theatres at least sometimes. Easy listening was the most played genre, and 70% said they would turn the music down or off during a crisis.

What it looks like on a real list

You will know the patterns:

The set-up playlist nobody remembers choosing, but everyone knows the words to.
The moment the room goes quiet without anyone asking, because the case has changed.
The count, when the music needs to come down so everyone can hear every number.
The surgeon whose playlist has not changed in years. You could set your watch by track four.
The speaker that is always just out of reach when you are scrubbed.

Who decides?

Every facility has its own approach, and some have local guidance on music, volume and when it goes off. Where yours does, that is the rule that counts.

Where there is nothing written down, it often comes down to habit, seniority, or whoever reaches the speaker first.

The Auckland team's suggestion was simple: decide as a team. In practice that might be a quick word at the team brief, a volume everyone can talk over, and an agreed signal for turning it off.

Your turn: team playlist or team quiet?

So where do you stand? Reply in the comments on our LinkedIn or Facebook post with one of these:

Team playlist: music on from set-up to close.
Team quiet: I like to hear the room.
Team depends: music for set-up and closing, off when it matters.

If you are team playlist, tell us the one song that always seems to turn up on a theatre list. Keep it light, and please do not name your hospital or anyone on your team.

We may share some of the best replies in a future Coffee Break, anonymised and only with your permission.