Essay on Alarm Fatigue - 1647 Words

Alarm Fatigue Alarm fatigue is a growing national problem within the health care industry that links medical technology as a serious hazard that poses a significant threat to patient safety within hospitals across the country. Alarm fatigue occurs when nurses encounter an overwhelming amount of alarms thus becoming desensitized to the firing alarms. Alarm desensitization is a multifaceted issue that is related to the number of alarming medical devices, a high false alarm rate, and the lack of alarm standardization in hospitals today (Cvach, 2012). Desensitization can lead to delayed response times, alarms silenced or turned off, or alarms adjusted to unsafe limits, which can create a dangerous situation for the patient. Alarm fatigue†¦show more content†¦378). Hospitals have an array of medical devices at the bedside that have alarms, which have grown significantly within recent years. Nurses may be exposed to over 350 physiologic alarm monitors per day, resulting in s ensory overload thus leading to desensitization. When the alarm sounds it should be corrected immediately, even though it may be a false alarm or no issues with the patient. The Joint Commission has identified alarm fatigue as a 2014 National Patient Safety Goal, requiring hospitals â€Å"to establish improvement of alarm system safety as an organization priority† (as cited in Horkan, 2014, p. 83). Alarms are deliberately designed for high sensitivity so that nurses do not miss a true event. Firing alarms are usually muted, disabled or ignored by nurses altogether because alarms are viewed as a nuisance. Alarm hazards have generated national attention, in one highly publicized case an alarm sounded for 75 minutes before a nurse responded to a patient’s heart monitor that needed a battery replaced. When the nurse finally went to change the battery the patient was found unresponsive and could not be resuscitated because he had gone into cardiac arrest (Sendelbach Fu nk, 2013). The patient’s heart monitor battery eventually died and did not issue the critical alarm alert. In another event, a patient fell getting out of bed and bleed to death because the nurseShow MoreRelatedAlarm Anxiety Of Alarm Fatigue1361 Words   |  6 Pagescombat safety issues is by using different alarm systems to alert staff to issues in patient rooms. The many different alarms can be beneficial but can also cause a phenomenon that is referred to as alarm fatigue. Alarm fatigue is defined as a condition of sensory overload for staff members who are exposed to an excessive number of alarms (Blake, 2014). It is a national problem and the number one medical device technology hazard in 2012. The problem of alarm desensitization is multifaceted and couldRead MoreAlarm Fatigue : A Critical Problem1206 Words   |  5 Pages Alarm fatigue is a critical problem in health care setting. Nurses may not respond to alarms because they know that most of them are false or non-actionable. Sometimes, the alarms become the noises that nurses no longer hear because they are heard all the time. In addition to ignore alarms, nurses may also reduce audible alarm levels, change alarm limits, and inappropriately silence or deactivate alarms (Cvach, 2012). The alarm fatigue has led to sentinel events and deaths of patientsRead MorePlan of Action: Monitor and Alarm Fatigue1968 Words   |  8 PagesMonitor fatigue has been an issue ever since the technology to monitor patients was developed. The problem has gotten worse as technology has advanced and the number of alarms in the hospital increased. The average ICU has â€Å"over 40 different alarms† (Sendelbach Jepsen, 2013). Monitor fatigue is related to any type of monitoring device used in the hospital making the scope of the problem rather large as monitors r ange from bed alarms to telemetry monitors. In June 2013 the Joint Commission approvedRead MoreThe Importance Of Alarm Fatigue And Its Effects On The Number Of False And Non Actionable Alarms1902 Words   |  8 Pagestraditional education had a greater impact on the number of false and non-actionable alarms over presenting education in an online educational format. Evidence supports that alarm fatigue is a nursing problem that puts patients at risk for ham. Reducing the number of nuisance alarms decreases the occurrence of alarm fatigue among registered nurses. Evidence also supports patient harm is lessened when alarm fatigue is reduced (Sendelbach, S., Funk, M. 2013). Nurses are ethically obligated to reduceRead Moremonitor alarm fatigue Essay1248 Words   |  5 PagesMonitor Alarm Fatigue Courtney Conner University of South Alabama Strategies to Reduce Monitor Alarm Fatigue Monitor alarms are designed to alert caregivers to changes in a patient’s condition and can save lives, but majority of the alarms do not require clinical intervention. However, as the number of alarms encountered by clinicians on a daily basis rises, it has become difficult for caregivers to distinguish between clinically significant alarms and nuisance alarms. As a result, alarm fatigue hasRead MoreAlarm Fatigue : A Critical Patient Safety Alert1362 Words   |  6 Pagespatient safety hazard known as â€Å"alarm fatigue†. Alarm fatigue occurs when caregivers are desensitized by the frequent sounding of competing alarms from medical equipment, and other sources in a healthcare setting. Clinical alarms can be unintentionally overlooked as background noise, and drown out actionable warning signs that require vital clinical interventions. These alarm safety issues have led to unfavorable and, at times, even fatal patient outcomes. Alarm fatigue is a complex and multi-facetedRead MoreAlarm Fatigue : A Worldwide Professional Organization Essay967 Words   |  4 PagesAlarm fatigue was brought into the spotlight in recent years because of adverse patient outcomes. These sentinel events triggered the Joint Commission to make alarm safety a goal in 2014, and mandating policies and procedures to be in place by 2016 for better monitoring and observance of alarms. I decided to highlight this topic since a large part of a critical care nurse’s daily routine is silencing alarms for monitors, pumps, ventilators, beds and call lights. In my personal experience inappropriatelyRead MoreA Short Note On Alarm Fatigue And Alarm Management993 Words   |  4 Pagesthat one methodology of educating the registered nurses to alarm fatigue and alarm management will be more effective over the other in reducing the number of false and non-actionable alarms. The expectation is to determine which educational methodology, onlin e or traditional, will have a greater impact on the alarm management behavior of the nursing staff in the cardiac intensive care unit. This will be evident if the number of nuisance alarms are affected by one or the other educational methodologyRead MoreAlarm Fatigue: A Concept Analysis2650 Words   |  11 Pages Alarm Fatigue in Health Care: A Concept Analysis Chamberlain College of Nursing NR-501: Theoretical Basis for Advanced Nursing Practice Alarm Fatigue in Health Care: A Concept Analysis Alarm fatigue in health care has grown to be an ever-growing concern in the health care arena, especially when looking at patient safety concerns. There must be an understanding of the problem before we can develop policies and effective strategies to counter this problem. The concept of alarm fatigue in healthRead More Alarm Fatigue and its Effects on Quality Patient Care Essay1951 Words   |  8 Pagescontinuously assess the patients’ status, and alarm if the patients’ status drops below what is considered normal. The increased use of monitoring devices has created a new phenomenon known as alarm fatigue. According to the ECRI institute (2011), â€Å"alarm fatigue occurs when the sheer number of alarms overwhelms staff and they become desensitized to the alarms resulting in delayed alarm response and missed alarms-often resulting in patient harm or even death.† Alarm fatigue has become a major problem within