...Combating Alarm Fatigue: A Matter of Life and Death Alarm Fatigue Nurses, especially in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), use information from a multitude of medical devices, particularly cardiac monitors, to guide them in providing care for their patients. Unfortunately, due to the frequency of unnecessary and false alarms, the devices that are meant to help nurses actually can do the opposite. Alarm fatigue can develop when a nurse is frequently exposed to an unnecessary number of alarms. "This situation can result in sensory overload, which may cause the person to become desensitized to the alarms" (Sendelbach & Jepsen, 2013. p.1). All nurses need to be aware of this important safety issue and institute practices to reduce the number of unnecessary and false alarms. History of Topic Over the last 60 years, many advances in clinical alarms and technology were put in place "to notify staff of equipment malfunctions or changes in patient condition" (Hannibal, 2011. p.418). In March 2012, a 17 year old girl sustained an anoxic brain injury and later died after the recovery room nurses failed to recognize and intervene when her respiratory condition and vital signs declined. This was because the alarms "were not properly set and was muted" ("Teen's death", 2013 p.61). "According to The Joint Commission's Sentinel Event database, hospitals voluntarily reported 80 deaths and 13 severe injuries that...
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...Alarm Fatigue Alarm fatigue is a growing national problem within the health care industry that links medical technology as a serious hazard that poses a significant threat to patient safety within hospitals across the country. Alarm fatigue occurs when nurses encounter an overwhelming amount of alarms thus becoming desensitized to the firing alarms. Alarm desensitization is a multifaceted issue that is related to the number of alarming medical devices, a high false alarm rate, and the lack of alarm standardization in hospitals today (Cvach, 2012). Desensitization can lead to delayed response times, alarms silenced or turned off, or alarms adjusted to unsafe limits, which can create a dangerous situation for the patient. Alarm fatigue has been identified as having negative effects on patients as well as healthcare professionals. Many hospitals have reported that alarm-related injuries have occurred due to the overwhelming amount of constant sounding alarms. Critical alarms cause nurses to tune out sounds, which in turn triggers the brain to adjust to stimulation, thus causing a healthcare professional to disregard the alarms. Hospital alarms can come from an array of devices including blood pressure machines, oxygen saturation devices, sleep apnea devices, fall prevention alarms, intravenous pumps, patient-controlled analgesia pumps, patient call systems, ventilators, telephones, anti-embolism pumps, and heart monitors. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the problem...
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...When working in the hospital setting, every health care worker has been exposed to many different types of sounds. Whether it is cardiac monitors, phone calls, patient call-lights, bed alarms, feeding pumps, or IV medication machines, nurses are exposed to an extraordinary amount of noises while at work. Being exposed to constant sounds can become exhausting over a 12 hour shift, and many nurses can develop alarm fatigue. Alarm fatigue is when clinicians can become overwhelmed due to the sheer number of alarms and therefore become desensitized (Joint Commission, 2013). Regardless if every alarm that sounds needs a clinical intervention, if nurses develop alarm fatigue, it can be hazardous to their patient’s safety. With alarm fatigue,...
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...In a hospital setting, there are a plethora of noises being simultaneously heard by nurses. Although biomedical alarms measuring pulse oximetry readings, heart rate, blood pressure and EKG rhythms are the main culprits of alarms-there are also patient call bells, bed alarms, IV Pump signals, ventilator alarms, etc. Hearing such repetitive sounds for long periods of time leads professionals to become desensitized, decreasing alertness and confidence in the seriousness to respond to these alarms resulting in what is now coined “alarm fatigue” (Bridi, Thiago, Lyra de Silva, 2013). Leading the list of patient safety initiatives, Joint Commission has deemed alarm fatigue a safety concern and a top priority in healthcare settings. In January 2014,...
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...The AAMI Foundation recently published a new white paper as part of its HTSI Safety Innovations series that explores alarm management strategies from a military perspective. According to Daniel McFarlane, Sc.D. of Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories, the approaches being used across hospital settings continue to present similar challenges: ignored alarm signals because of fatigue, lengthy practitioner response rates to alarms, and provider confusion over which alarms are important. “The lack of actionable intelligence from alarm signals makes it impossible for nurses to effectively triage their multitasking among multiple patients,” noted Dr. McFarlane. “Each alarm feature considers only local conditions on separate sensors on separate instruments for separate patients. The result is an overwhelming rate of alarm signals from multiple devices associated with multiple patients that do not carry the context of information needed for nurses to understand the signals relative to their responsibility to triage their efforts.” There are 9 types of clinical context facilitated by an advanced alarm management platform that work together with advanced rules to reduce alarm fatigue and increase situational awareness: 1. Alarm Context: supplemental data delivered with an alarm or event notification; e.g. multiple data points including blood pressure, respiratory rate, and SpO2. 2. Patient Context: supplemental data about the patient derived from a real-time interface...
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...Combating Compassion Fatigue Kadijatu Lewis Grand Canyon University: HLT.310V April 14th, 2013 Nursing is an emotional, physical spiritual and hard work. It is also rewarding and most times satisfying. Nurses witness pain and suffering of others daily, resulting in increase risk for emotional stress. Nurses also work under demanding conditions related to budget constraints, and short staff resulting in increase workload. Compassion fatigue is the last stage of compassion discomfort and compassion stress. The nursing profession does not provide adequate resources to help combat this condition, like other professionals who deal with similar situations. This paper will identify signs and symptoms of compassion fatigue and ways of combating them. Compassionate fatigue is an emotional, physical and spiritual exhaustion from witnessing and absorbing the problems and suffering of others. Compassionate fatigue usually affect selfless, caring and sacrificing nurses who are emotional attached to their jobs. It usually comes on gradually. It usually occurs when a caregiver attempts to give out more compassion and energy than they are getting in return. When we exhibit compassion fatigue, our natural human desire to help is significantly diminished (Frandsen, 2010) Compassion fatigue manifest itself in different ways, these include feeling of exhaustion and overwhelm with ones assignment before the start of shift, this feeling occurs...
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...Depression is a mood disorder in which feelings of sadness, loss, anger, or frustration interfere with everyday life for weeks or longer. It is normal for a teenager to feel sad or have uneasy feelings. When it doesn’t go away or stop, that is when it becomes a problem. It is actually more common in teens to go through depression. Grades, school, social status with peers, family, or life are some of the reasons why someone can be depressed. Holden Caulfield, from the story “The Catcher in the Rye”, was depressed because of some of these causes. He wasn’t able to find happiness and had severe guilt. The symptoms for depression can be really easy to spot. It is a change in behavior that you may see in someone. Depression symptoms can be different for every person. The more symptoms you have, and the longer you have them will more likely be that you are going through depression. All the symptoms will vary depending on what a teenager is going through. These are symptoms of depression: feeling hopelessness, appetite or weight changes, sleep changes, anger or irritability, self-loathing, concentration problems, and unexplained aches or pains. Other symptoms are excessive feeling of guilt, skipping school, sudden drop in grades, withdrawal from friends, and feeling sadness. Just like the way there are different causes for depression, there are also different way people will get treated for this. What may work for one person might not work for someone else. It will take time for...
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...Grade Received, "A" Information systems will definitely alter the way that healthcare organizations are structured. Information systems were made to aide a business in having an aggressive lead over competition by giving support and helping to shape the makeup and strategies of the business. Upgrades to information technologies have raised the productiveness of healthcare services as well as employees because an advance in technology lowers the usage of paper records. These alterations in technology enable data to be distributed and reserved in exceptional ways, enabling information to be traced, evaluated, and exhausted in a manner that aides in delivering more competent care. Due to the type of data that is attainable via healthcare information systems, the makeup of the healthcare business will conform in consensus to the pertinent information systems. These systems will not only affect direct-care services like doctors and nurses, but will also alter non direct-care fields like analysis and growth, invoices, medical records, and more (Fottler, Ford, & Heaton, 2010). Fundamental alterations due to information systems are inescapable because of the alterations in how the data is acquired, reserved, and fetched. Information systems are intended to reply to inquiries. Nurses might exhaust upgraded systems to keep track of patients’ vitals; thus, altering the method of how care is given as well as the effectiveness of responses to the failing health of hospitalized consumers...
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...Demographic Information- Katie is a 16-year old Hispanic female. She is a student in the 10th grade. She has no work history. She lives with her bio parents. Her father is significantly older than her mother, approximately 20-year age difference. They have been married for 22 years. She is an only child. They live in an urban area, low-income. Presenting Problem- Katie’s parents referred her for not completing chores, being disrespectful, grades slipping, beginning to dress in all black and listen to hard rock music, etc. Katie reported she thought the presenting problem was that she didn’t want to be around anyone, triggered by her parents’ fighting. History of the Presenting Problem- few months, she has never seen a therapist before. Diagnosis- adjustment disorder with depressed mood. Was not depressed before her parents began fighting. Treatment Planning – Katie will increase communication with her parents, demonstrated by a 10-minute conversation, 5 out of 7 days, for 2 consistent weeks. Katie will keep a thought record for each day and review with the counselor at the following session. Katie will increase her interactions with peers by initiating a conversation with a peer at least 3 out of 5 days. Katie will identify 3 coping skills she can use when she is distressed, and practice the skills in sessions 4/5 opportunities. Use creative therapies because she does not like to talk openly about how she feels. Ethics Section- She was referred...
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...A Sunny Day in Bryant Park Today was sunny, neither cold nor hot. After lunch, I hung out to Bryant Park to relax myself. There were a large number of people at that time due to the brilliant weather, I supposed. Nearly all the positions were occupied. Some were chatting with each other during the lunch time, happily and breezily. While some young boys enjoyed themselves going skating or playing tennis. Others, especially some old men and women would rather take nap in the leisure time. Under the heavy pressure in my studies, in fact, seldom had I observed people so carefully like this. In most cases, I always passed by the park as quickly as I could to save the time. It seemed that everyone had his own story and in different moods. It interested me a lot. While I was walking with no aim and destination, a slim woman with blonde hair suddenly caught my eye. Sitting on a chair at the corner of the park with an elegant posture and wearing headphones while indulging herself in the books, she frowned suddenly just like coming across some problems. A formal suit, a pair of delicate high heels, black coat on the chair. All these indicated that she was an office lady. Drinking a cup of Starbucks while skimming through the documents, she pulled the beautiful long black hair gently from time to time. She might work in the office not far away and have some tasks to deal with, which should have been finished in the morning. In the light of the exhaustion shown on her face, I thought...
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...Abstract Fatigue in racing activities is one of the most common problems that drivers encounter. The occurrence leads to a reduction in speeds and general performance. As a result, there have been numerous technology improvements in the area. Ideally, the ability to measure the level of tiredness among drivers can allow scientists to come up with better methods of boosting their output. The advancement in the system would save lives since drivers cause accidents due to exhaustion. Technology has made it easy to track the level of weariness in individuals participating in racing activities. Usually, sensors are used to alert officials on increase in fatigue in drivers. Afterward, corrective actions can be conducted to prevent the loss of life...
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...Module 8: Internet Search: Influenza Log on to the web site for the Centers for Disease Control Flu site. http://www.cdc.gov/flu/ On the right side of the page of, there is a USA map. Click on the USA maps to answer the following questions. List a few states that currently have only local activity? _ Puerto Rico and Massachusetts _______________________ What states if any have widespread activity? _None____________________________ What is Indiana’s status? Sporadic________________ Click on the world map. What is the international situation right now? The influenza activity in the northern hemisphere is at interseasonal levels. In Central America the influenza levels are high with decreasing trends. In Asia influenza activity has decreased, except for India and Viet Nam. In the southern hemisphere the influenza levels increased in South America and in Southern Africa. Is there a particular part of the world where flu is currently active: If so, where? _Yes, there is plus 30% of positive influenza in Mexico right now according to the map. ________________________________________________________________________ Return to the home page and click on the Flu Basics button in the topics box. There will be a list of topics. Scroll down to and click on the topic Seasonal Flu and Staph Infections Information about flu and staph infections, MRSA… What is MRSA? MRSA stands for methicillin-resistant S. aureus What is the threat to children? _These infections are very dangerous...
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...The Advantages and Disadvantages of Two Jobs My neighbor Sue lives in a nice house and has two luxurious cars in the driveway. Her overtime hours at work are being eliminated, so the money she is used to making is becoming less. So, Sue must decide whether or not to take on a second job to live the way she is accustomed to. There are numerous advantages and disadvantages in working two jobs. Before deciding on working two jobs, it would be a good idea to consider these positives and negatives. We should consider the benefits in deciding to have two jobs. The main reason for working two jobs is to provide enough income to survive and pay the bills. The additional income might make a difference in paying for a certain quality of life that someone is accustomed to living. In working two jobs, there is an opportunity to improve your skills in different areas. Sometimes the skills learned in the second job can improve the skills for the primary job. People may develop entirely different skills from the second job. You may have a competitive edge from working two jobs in the job market because you may have different skills to bring to your new job. You may have better experience than someone else has making you a more desirable candidate. Working two jobs provides more networking opportunities and interacting with more people. This could provide you with additional references and recommendations for future jobs. As a result of working two jobs, people develop stronger...
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...leads to partial awakening and restless sleep. At night, some people like to drink caffeinated drinks to keep them awake. Thus, I usually use caffeine to keep me alert, complete my work and study during examination and in the hope of achieving the best in class. Sometime I drink coffee for the extra boost in the morning, to help me get through the day without getting drowsiness. There is a close relationship between depression and sleep deprivation. A lack of sleep saps our energy, makes you irritable and sucks all the joy from our lives. However it will increase risk of mistakes or accidents in our working lives. Sometime we could even lose our jobs because of it. Sleep deprivation not only makes us tiredness, fatigue and depression but also makes us fat. Our metabolism will not function properly when we are sleep...
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...I accompanied my mother to the central market to buy some groceries that she needed for the coming New Year. When we arrived at the market we could not find a place to park the car. So we waited patiently for about ten minutes before someone vacated a parking space and we moved in. Coming to the market just before a festive season was not a pleasant experience. The whole town seemed to be there. Everyone had things to buy. So the prices of things shot up. Worst of all, we had to struggle to get these things. So we made our way carefully through the various sections buying vegetables, meat, fish, noodles, spices and other food stuffs. We had wanted to buy some prawns too but they were all sold out, despite their sky-high price. The bags got heavier and heavier. The crowd got thicker and thicker. The noise and heat was overwhelming. As we had nearly done all the shopping, I told my mother that I would wait for her at the car. I could not stand being among hundreds of aggressive shoppers anymore. I lugged the bags wearily to the car and breathed a sigh of relief when I reached it. The air smelled sweet and cool. I was glad to be outside. Fifteen minutes later my mother emerged from the market. She looked exhausted. We put the groceries in the boot, got into the car and drove off with the air-conditioner at full...
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