부산대학교 도서관

Objective: Providing safe patient care while decreasing alarm fatigue when using continuous heart rate and respiratory rate monitoring is a delicate balance. Is it possible to adjust pediatric alarm parameters in an acute care neuroscience unit safely, while reducing the risk for alarm fatigue and desensitization? Methods: Alarms on an acute care pediatric neuroscience unit within a children's specialty hospital were monitored from a central monitoring system for all children using continuous heart and respiratory rate monitors for three weeks. Data collected included heart rate and respiratory rate during a sounding alarm whether an intervention was necessary or not, the age of the patient, the condition for which the patient was admitted, and the current alarm parameters set. Results: It was determined that the current age-based protocol +/-15% was safe and effective in decreasing non-actionable alarms by 43% and maintaining safety with zero actionable alarms during the time period of this project. Discussion: Allowing nursing to use critical thinking to adjust heart rate and respiratory rate parameters by +/-15% of the age-based protocol provides a safe and effective method in reducing alarm fatigue while maintaining patient safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]