Hospitalized patients are often hooked up to monitoring devices such as heart monitors, which monitor the electric activity of the heart, or connected to a physiological monitor so their vital signs are constantly being measured. These monitors are intended to continuously 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), “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 the nursing community and has already had a negative impact on patient safety. Due to the adverse effects alarm fatigue is having on quality patient care, there has been a call to action to find solutions that may deter alarm fatigue. Evidence-based practices involving quality improvement initiatives have been put into effect. The problem has also gained national attention from such institutions as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and The Joint Commission (TJC).
Relevance to the Profession of Nursing
According to the Registered Nurse (RN) Scope of Practice Position Statement, “the RN is responsible for providing safe, compassionate, and comprehensive nursing care to patients and their families with complex healthcare needs” (Texas Board of Nursing, 2011). Nurses often care for five to six patients at one time; therefore, in order to provide the best quality care, patients are often connected to monitoring devices such as, physiological monitors, venti...
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Brief/ECRI%20Institute%20PSO%20Monthly%20Brief%20v1.pdf
Graham, C. K., Cvach, M. (2010). Monitor alarm fatigue: Standardizing use of
physiological monitors and decreasing nuisance alarms. American Journal of Critical
Care, 19, 28-34. doi: 10.4037/ajcc201651
The American Nurses Association. (2010). Code of Ethics for Nurses with
Interpretive statements. Retrieved from http://www.nursingworld.org/
MainMenuCategories/EthicsStandards/CodeofEthicsforNurses/Code-of-
ethics.pdf
The Texas Board of Nursing. (2011). The Registered Nurse Scope of Practice.
Retrieved April 2, 2012 from http://www.bon.texas.gov/practice/pdfs/
Position15-27.pdf
Wallis, L. (2010). Alarm Fatigue Linked to Patients Death. American Journal of Nursing,
110 (7), 16. doi: 10.1097/01.NAJ.0000383917.98063.bd
Rocognising and Responding Appropriately to Early Signs of Deterioration in Hospitalised Patients (NPSA, 2007) stemmed from the investigation as to why patient deterioration was not being acted on or recognized by healthcare workers. The exploration identified a number of failures centered on lack of proper observation and recordings of observations, and lack of proper communication between hospital staff members. The study uncovered concerns from staff members not observing patients at night, to undertrained staff left to interpret vital signs and perform work outside of their level of expertise. It also showed a pattern of little to no communication between medical colleagues ...
While nurses are working on a floor there are many different machines that have alarms such as IV pumps, ventilator machines, ECG’s, vital machines, call lights, and pagers. New nurses have shown a lack of response efforts to combat these alarms from a proposed desensitization and sensory overload of the alarm noise (Cvach, 2012). This is a patient safety concern due to what the alarms purpose is which in turn leads to varying amounts of potentially severe consqeunces if not answered promptly. Between 2009 and 2012 the joint commission stated that there were 80 patient deaths, 13 permanent losses of function, and 5 events that led to extended hospital stays (Horkan, 2014). It is important for nurses to recognize alarm fatigue and find interventions to help keep patients from being injured.
The comparisons of Licensed Vocational Nurses (LVN) and Registered Nurses (RN) are simply the bases for all nurses. LVNs and RNs protect the patient’s privacy, provide safe environments, and administer medications and treatments. The Texas Administration code (2007) says all nurses will, “accurately and completely report and document: the client’s status including signs and symptoms; nursing care rendered; physician, dentist or podiatrist orders; administration of medications and treatments; client response(s); and contacts with other health care team members concerning significant events regarding client’s status”(D). Nurses are to maintain a professional nurse-client relationship; it is their responsibility to know and recognize what that entails. Nurses are bound by law to provide nursing care without discrimination regardless of age, sex, sexual orientation, ethnicity, nationality, religion, health problems or socioeconomic status. Some other similarities include measures to prevent the spread of infectious pathogens, collaboration with other health care team members and patient, prevent patient harm.
Nurses hate it when patients are constantly turning their call lights on. The nurse feels like they are continuously in and out of that room for every little thing. Patients hate it when they wait a long time for someone to show up after pressing their call light. The patient begins to feel that they are not being take care of well and are being ignored. Patient satisfaction surveys state that one of the top complaints from patients were call lights not being answered in a timely manner. There has been evidence to prove that if facilities implement hourly rounding into their daily routine patient satisfaction goes up and call light use is greatly reduced. It is also proven if patient satisfaction goes up more nurses are satisfied with their job performance and can take care of their patients better.
Nurses have a considerable amount of responsibility in any facility. They are responsible for administering medicines and treatments to there patient’s. While caring for there patients, nurses will make observations on patient’s health and then record there findings. As well as consulting with doctors and other healthcare professionals to plan proper individual patient care. They teach their patients how to manage their illnesses and explain to both the patient and the patients family how to continue treatment when returning home (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014-15). They also record p...
In the recent past, nursing has come to the forefront as a popular career amongst students across the globe. The demand for nurses has kept increasing gradually over the years. In fact, the number of registered nurses does not meet the demand of the private and public health sector. This phenomenon has resulted in a situation where the available registered nurses have to work extra hours in order to meet the patients’ needs. With this in mind, the issue of nurse fatigue has come up as a common problem in nursing. According to the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA), nurse fatigue is “a feeling of tiredness” that penetrates a persons physical, mental and emotional realms limiting their ability to function normally. Fatigue does not just involve sleepiness as has been assumed before. It involves utter exhaustion that is not easily mitigated through rest. When nurses ignore the signs of fatigue, they risk the development of chronic fatigue and other health problems that may not be easily treated. Additionally, fatigue may cause nurses to lose more time at work as they may have to be away from work for several days to treat it. The issue of nurse fatigue has permeated the nursing profession to the extent of causing errors in the work performed by nurses. Fatigue causes a decrease in a nurse’s ability to make accurate decisions for themselves and their patients. It is therefore important to find ways to curb nurse fatigue such that it is no longer a problem. Nurse fatigue is a danger to the patients, organizations and to the nurses themselves and must be mitigated adequately.
Turnock, C. (1994). Technology in Critical Care Nursing. In B. Millar, and P. Burnard. (Eds.) (1994). Critical Care Nursing. Caring for the Critically Ill Adult. London: Baillière Tindall.
Safety is focused on reducing the chance of harm to staff and patients. The 2016 National Patient Safety Goals for Hospitals includes criteria such as using two forms of identification when caring for a patient to ensure the right patient is being treated, proper hand washing techniques to prevent nosocomial infections and reporting critical information promptly (Joint Commission, 2015). It is important that nurses follow standards and protocols intending to patients to decrease adverse
Safe nurse-patient ratio is a complex issue debated on for many years. Due to inadequate staffing registered Nurses are faced with high patient ratios, and nurse burn out everyday. According to the American Nurses Association, “Massive Reductions in nursing budgets combined with, the challenges presented by a growing nursing shortage have resulted in fewer nurses working longer hours for sicker patients. This situation compromises care and contributes to the nursing shortage by creating an environment that drives nurses from the bedside”. (2012) Through the nursing process, the essential role of the Registered Nurse is to assess, diagnose, and plan based on outcomes, implement and evaluate the effectiveness of nursing care. However, it is not realistic to thoroughly implement these core guidelines in a safe and effective way, when you are
The career of a registered nurse is one of the most interesting professions in the medical field, because not only do they help to improve the health of their patients, they also help their patients to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Registered nurses work to promote health, prevent disease, and help patients cope with illness. Their job is to help patients get their health back on track, and prevent increased visits to the physician. When providing care directly to the patient, they observe, assess, and record symptoms, reactions, and progress. They do this to see where the patient’s health stands and prevent further illness or health problems if such occurs. Registered Nurses help to develop and manage nursing plans, and instruct the patient and their
According to the author, nursing practice needs to stay current with technological advances while keeping its identity as a patient focused profession. Nurses use technology to improve care from a patient?s perspective, both in quality of care and cost. At the same time, nurses must learn to balance technological knowledge with personal skills, thus providing optimum clinical care while maintaining a person-focused relationship with the patient.
Patients expect instant response to call lights due to today’s technological advancements. This can negatively impact nurse stress and cause contempt toward the patient. However, the expectation to respond promptly improves safety and encourages frequent rounding. Also, aiming for high patient satisfaction scores on the HCAHPS/Press Ganey by fulfilling patient requests can overshadow safe, efficient, and necessary healthcare. Although patient satisfaction is important, ultimately, the patient’s health takes precedence over satisfying patient and family requests, especially when those requests are unnecessary, harmful, or take away from the plan of care (Junewicz & Youngner, 2015). The HCAHPS/Press Ganey survey focuses on the patient’s perception of care. The problem with this aspect of the survey is that the first and foremost goal of nurses should not be to increase a patient’s score based on perception. According to an article in Health Facilities Management, the nurse’s top priority is to provide the safest, most quality care possible for patients with the resources they are given (Hurst, 2013). Once this has been accomplished, the nurse can then help the patient realize that the most
Lippincott , Williams, & Wilkins, (2012). Sentinel event alert spotlights nurse fatigue. Clinical Rounds, 42(3), 27-29. doi: 10.1097/01.NURSE.0000411416.14033.f5
Several consequences of high nursing workload have been proven to hinder the quality of patient care. Carayon and Gurses’s research (2008) indicates that heavy workload can contribute to errors, shortcuts, guideline violations, and poor communication with physicians and other providers, thus compromising the quality and safety of patient care. In addition, the research not only implies that patients may not receive proper care, but also they can experience less satisfaction with
With the introduction of the age of computers, the nursing profession has seen a transition from the manual to automated methods of record keeping and even patient management. With the introduction of new technology even in monitor systems within the hospitals, nurses are compelled to increase their scope of learning in order to cope with the changes. Intensive care unit equipment are highly sophisticated which only increases the pressure on the nurse as a learner (Urquhart, Currell, Grant & Hardiker). This explicitly shows that nursing is a