Megan Zornes
MondayApr 8 at 11:10am
Alarm fatigue is something that at my facility we experience more often than any of us would like. With the nature of the disabilities that a number of my residents here suffer from, often times, alarms are “tripped” as a result of curious minds, or mischievous, (without really understanding what is happening,) conduct that cannot be undone once initiated. One of the cottages in my facility is known as the Lodge. This unit is where our vent/trach kiddos reside, so as you can imagine, alarms are a part of each and every day. When those alarms go off needlessly, it creates a tension on the unit as everyone runs to these critical patients to assess the situation. The seriousness of accuracy when alarms sound makes for a potentially catastrophic event. False alarms create unnecessary fatigue and frustration, and ultimately have the potential to hinder an actual “real time” emergency. Sadly, when false alarms become habitual in nature, it can desensitize nurses, which in turn, can delay response times opening up the door for patient safety to be compromised (Woo, 2020). Considering how impacted patient care is in response to technology, critical thinking skills are imperative to ensure quality and accurate care is being provided in every single case. “Technology is only as good and safe as the nurse using that technology,” (Chamberlain College of Nursing, 2024). Therefore, safeguards are a necessary piece to healthcare providers to minimize errors and false alarms so that caregivers perform confident, fast and efficient response times in the event of emergencies.
Chamberlain College of Nursing. (2024). NR361, Week 6: Safe Care and Patient Care Technologies. IL: DeVry Education Group.
Woo, Meghan and bacon, Olivia (2020) National library of medicine. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK555522/ (Accessed: 13 March 2020).
