The Self And Interactions With The Environment
Accuracy issues and false alarms are ongoing threats to patient safety. Nurses’ lack of confidence in devices’ alarm sys- tem data is a basis for the timeliness of their re- sponses. When everything is alarming, nothing is alarming: it is hard to know which alarms are significant or vital to patient well-being when there are so many alarms being generated. The sheer volume of visual and audible signals nurses are bombarded with each shift does not appear to have created safer conditions for patients, as nurses routinely tune them out and ignore them. Nurses in each unit noted certain types of alarms that would cause them to respond im- mediately, but the vast majority were not found to be helpful or contribute value to their clini- cal assessment or planned nursing care. Monitor- ing only those patients who need monitoring and only those physiologic values that are warranted based on patient condition may decrease alarm burden. Nurse staffing based on patient acuity is recommended.
tent of development of clinical alerts and alarms as patient safety features has not yet been fully realized.
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