Running head: DISTRACTORS IN OUR ENVIRONMENTS 1

Distractors in Our Environments

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Clinical alarms are designed to enhance patient safety by alerting clinical staff to deviations

from normal status. They alert clinicians when the condition of a patient deteriorates or when

another device fails to function as it should. Alarm fatigue occurs as a result of the

overwhelming number of alarm signals which result in desensitization, which subsequently

leads to delayed alarm response or missed alarm.

When nurses fail to respond to a monitor alarm, the patient may become unresponsive after

some time. Clinicians have a code of ethics and practice standards to adhere to. The Nursing

Code of Ethics demand that nurses and other clinical staff should promote, strive and

advocate for the health and safety of their patients. It is the duty of clinical staff to ensure that

patients are well protected, and with this in mind, alarm fatigue that leads to delayed or no

response (whether intentional or unintentional) can harm patients and negatively affect their

outcome. Alarm fatigue can ultimately cause death, and potentially lead to negligence

lawsuits.

Alarm fatigue and distractions in healthcare can potentially lead to medical errors, latent

failures, ineffective care delivery, stress and conflict among healthcare professionals, and

poor patient outcome. In particular, alarm fatigue is increasingly becoming a critical safety

issue in many healthcare settings. According to Sue & Marjorie (2013), some studies have

shown that more than 85 percent of alarms in some hospitals are false alarms. This has

caused clinicians to lower the volume of audible alarm signals or adjust the alarm settings to

limits outside the safe and appropriate range for the patient, deactivate alarms, or sometimes

ignore the alarms. As a result, sentimel events and aven patient deaths have been observed. It

is ironic that alarm systems that were designed to enhance patient safety have instead become

a patient safety concern and contributed to unsafe healthcare environment.

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Reference

Sue, S., & Marjorie, F. (2013). Alarm Fatigue: A Patient Safety Concern. AACN Advanced

Critical Care, 378 - 386.