Minimizing Alarm Fatigue: Pediatric Perspective

Pediatric Perspectives| June 15 2018 Minimizing Alarm Fatigue: Pediatric Perspective Lori Williams, DNP, RN, RNC-NIC, CCRN, NNP-BC Lori Williams, DNP, RN, RNC-NIC, CCRN, NNP-BC Department Editor Lori Williams is Clinical Nurse Specialist, Universal Care Unit and Float Team, American Family Children’s Hospital, University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, 1675 Highland Avenue, Madison, WI 53792 (Lwilliams3@uwhealth.org). Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar AACN Adv Crit Care (2018) 29 (2): 204–207. https://doi.org/10.4037/aacnacc2018946 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Tools Icon Tools Cite Icon Cite Get Permissions Citation Lori Williams; Minimizing Alarm Fatigue: Pediatric Perspective. AACN Adv Crit Care 1 January 2018; 29 (2): 204–207. doi: https://doi.org/10.4037/aacnacc2018946 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search nav search search input Search input auto suggest search filter All ContentAACN Advanced Critical Care Search Advanced Search A cute care clinicians’ exposure to excessive numbers of alarms, particularly those that are of no clinical importance or are false, results in sensory overload and a subsequent desensitization to those alarms. When desensitization occurs, alarm response may be delayed or absent. Patient deaths or other unfavorable outcomes can occur when serious clinical events detected by cardiac monitors or pulse oximeters are perceived as false, not acted upon with appropriate haste, or missed entirely. According to studies in physiologic monitor alarms for adults and children, 89% to 99% of electrocardiographic (ECG) monitor alarms are clinically insignificant or false.1,2 To date, strategies to reduce alarms and the resulting fatigue have focused on the ECG and oxygen saturation alarms resulting in limited evidence existing to guide practice, particularly for pediatric patients. To minimize alarm fatigue successfully, units must analyze factors leading to...