Impact of Alarm Management Classes in Reducing Alarm Fatigue

Alarm fatigue is becoming a more and more common problem for nurses working in inpatient hospital units, especially critical care units. Monitoring systems, ventilators, vital signs monitors, and other electronic devices designed to detect critical or pending critical values and alterations in patients have become more of a nuisance than the lifesaving systems they were designed to be. With alarms sounding frequently for what are typically nonactionable alerts, nurses to have developed a decrease in sensitivity to all alarms, regardless of importance. Research of alarm fatigue has shown that while the significance of the problem is clear and studies have found several possible solutions, no solutions have been implemented to help nurses experience lessened alarm fatigue. Solutions founded by research include artificial intelligence involvement used to determine when alarm notifications are medically necessary, the use of algorithms to determine appropriate values for each patient, and the benefits of alarm management education. The purpose of this study is the evaluate the implantation of educational classes for alarm management among critical care nurses. Educational classes for alarm management have shown the most promising results and will be implemented here. Starting with acute care staff then spreading hospital wide, all inpatient nurses will be given educational classes about alarm fatigue, how to prevent it, and alarm management techniques which will include how to change set parameters, recommended parameter changes according to patients, and how to recognize critical alarm soundings while avoiding nonactionable alarm soundings. The nurses attending the training will be given questionnaires before the classes, after the completion of the training, and three months post training to see how beneficial the education was on alleviating and preventing alarm fatigue. Training will be modified based on participant feedback. Once courses have been modified to an appropriate degree, the training courses on alarm management will become part of the new grad orientation process