The Impact of Frequent Alarm Exposure on Intensive Care Nurses—A Mapping of the Current State of Knowledge
Frida Bråberg, Johan Vesterlund, Åsa Roxberg, Maria EmilssonBackground
The caring environment in an intensive care unit is more intense than anywhere else in the hospital. The responsibilities of the intensive care nurse include operating medical equipment and continuously monitoring and evaluating the patient’s health status. Great demands are placed on being able to prioritize and be vigilant as situations can quickly become critical. To facilitate these demands, each medical device has an alarm system that warns if parameters can be life‐threatening. Alarms have been shown to have an impact on the nurse, but a mapping of the knowledge area is needed to compile the multifactorial impact that alarms can have.
Aim
The aim of this study was to map the current state of knowledge regarding how alarms in an intensive care context affect intensive care nurses.
Method
A scoping review that contains articles using both quantitative and qualitative methods with the aim of mapping the current area of knowledge.
Results
One category, Impact of Alarms Exposer on Nurses and Patient Care Delivery, and four subcategories emerged through the analysis: “Adverse physical effects,” “Psychological vulnerability,” “Negative effects on the work performance,” and “Patient safety at risk.”
Conclusion
Today’s technological advances in medicine, and more specifically in patient monitoring, mean that we can monitor patients to a greater extent. This leads to an increased number of alarms and a work environment characterized by more alarms. The conclusion is therefore that alarms have a multifactorial impact on the physical and mental health and work performance of intensive care nurses.