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Nursing Alarm Safety And Alarm Management Essay

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.....clinician responses to alarms? For example: Physical barriers, physical layout of the unit, RN-pt ratio.The observed influences include the type of alarm, such as whether it was a bed or bathroom alarm versus a technology alarm coming from something like the IV pump.

2. How, as a student, are you educated about alarms and your response to them? How might education regarding the various patient alarms be an issue associated with alarm response?

I have done some research on the clinical implications of alarms and alarm fatigue. For example, Cyach, et al. (n.d.) found that too many alarms causes alarm fatigue, and also creates a "false sense of security," (p. 5). The researchers also found that staff is sometimes not educated about the different types of alarms and what they mean.

3. Who is responsible for alarm response?

The delegation of authority for responses will vary from case to case. In the clinical setting in my unit, which I observed for this analysis, all nurses on duty were responsible. However, some nurses with areas of specialization would attend to additional alarms other than the general ones of the bed alarm,...

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Based on your observations, why are alarms ignored?
As Cyach et al. (n.d.) point out, alarms are most often ignored when the nurses become fatigued to them, when the alarms go off unnecessarily (false alarms) or when a problematic patient presses their bed alarm frequently as a behavioral problem. Other causes of ignoring alarm is the perception that the alarm has been triggered by an equipment malfunction. Another issue is the "false sense of security" that Cyach et al. (n.d.) notice in that nurses do not hurry to address the issue because they do not believe it to be serious (p. 5).

5. Who is responsible for testing and managing alarms on your unit? How are limits set on alarms?

Technicians come and test the equipment when there is a perceived malfunction. The head nurse in the unit understands some of the equipment, especially the IV units, and manages those alarms. Limits are set by the technician, but with the input of the nurse on hand.

6. What is a nuisance alarm? How did the alarm become a nuisance alarm? What is the danger in classifying an alarm as a nuisance…

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