Nursing alarm Fatigue NURSING ESSAY

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Nursing alarm Fatigue NURSING ESSAY

Nursing alarm Fatigue NURSING ESSAY

Introduction

Recent years have seen aggressive adoption of technology and computerized systems in healthcare. While the shift has greatly improved the quality of care given to patients, it has also brought with it new safety threats. For instance, while the alert-generating devices are meant to provide both visual and auditory warnings to the clinicians, they can also be counter-productive. Also known as alarm fatigue, alert fatigue, occurs when a nurse, or any other healthcare provider, is exposed to many alerts. With time, one gets desensitized to the alerts/alarms. In turn, desensitization leads to longer response time and even some alarms may be entirely missed altogether. Alert fatigue is common in hospitals, nursing homes, home care providers, among others. Due to desensitization, alarm fatigue results in many deaths and injuries, every year. Nurse informaticists, a role that has gained massive popularity in the recent past, can help address this issue. Moreover, they can also help minimize clinical decision support misfires, which are common in healthcare according to research CITATION Mil161 \l 1033 (Miliard, 2016). As a result, these facilities should develop measures to counter alert fatigue. This paper seeks to discuss possible solutions to alert fatigue as well as the role that nurse informaticists can play to address the issue in various settings.

Solutions to Combat Alert Fatigue

Due to the increasing number of alerts in healthcare and the associated consequences, there is a need to address the issue. Various software applications, such as AlertSpace, can be used to improve alert logic. This intervention aims at using data to make alerts more relevant and targeted. For instance, the intervention can be adjusted in a way that specific alerts are sent to a specific person instead of to every person involved in the patient’s care. With such a system, the alert for a patient at the risk of undergoing sepsis, for example, would notify the pharmacist of a possible drug interaction. An in-built feature can also be incorporated into the electronic health record (EHR) system. By building all the interactions table, the intervention gives the administration total control over the number of interactions firing (Leventhal, 2018). Resultantly, the number of alerts goes down, and alert fatigue is minimized.

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Suspension of certain features can also be used to solve the problem of alert fatigue. Using this intervention, what gets forwarded directly to the provider is controlled carefully. Moreover, customized algorithms can be used to delay alerts that do not need immediate action. Commonly seen alerts in a particular population can also be filtered. Parameters for suspension are considered during setting up the system, depending on factors, such as events, type of alarm, and the care unit. This helps drastically minimize alert fatigue. For instance, a study done at John Hopkins determined that though 61,227 alert warnings were generated in a particular week, only 3,103 of them were sent to mobile devices (Frank, 2018).

The Role of Nurse Informaticists

The nurse has a huge role to play in the implementation of these solutions. First, nurse informaticists play a critical role in the development and implementation of new and more efficient systems. Secondly, through the analysis and monitoring of trends, the nurse informaticists can determine the alerts to be channeled to particular providers, as well as those that can be suspended (Short, 2019). Hence, the number of alerts is minimized and alert fatigue goes down as well. However, as shown in the table below, the role played by the nurse informaticist is determined by the setting.

Setting Role

• Physician’s Office Setting up EHR systems
• Long-term Care Facility Setting up of EHR systems
• Choosing software to be used in reducing alerts
• Implementation of such interventions
• Analyzing trends to determine the most common alerts among different populations
• Choosing algorithms to filter alerts
• General Hospital Setting up and implementation of EHR systems
• Choosing software to be used in reducing alerts
• Analyzing trends to determine alerts that can be filtered or suspended

Conclusion

Though alerts are life-saving, they can also be bothersome and counterproductive. Therefore, to enhance the safety of patients, interventions to reduce the number and frequency of alerts should be implemented. Interventions such as use of software to control and filter alerts have been proven to be effective in reducing alerts and the subsequent alert fatigue. Through the analysis of trends and monitoring of the most frequent alerts, nurse informaticists play a huge role in the implementation of these solutions.

References

Frank, R. (2018, July 9). 5 Technology tools for reducing alarm fatigue. Retrieved from Health IT & CIO Report: https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/healthcare-information-technology/5-technology-tools-for-reducing-alarm-fatigue.html

Leventhal, R. (2018, February 1). At Sentara Healthcare, Combating Alert Fatigue with Enhanced Clinical Decision Support. Retrieved from Healthcare Innovation: https://www.hcinnovationgroup.com/clinical-it-article/13029095/at-sentara-healthcare-combating-alert-fatigue-with-enhanced-clinical-decision-support

Miliard, M. (2016, April 1). Clinical decision support malfunctions are widespread and persistent, AMIA says. Retrieved from Healthcare IT News: https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/clinical-decision-support-malfunctions-are-widespread-and-persistent-amia-says

Short, K. (2019). Solving alarm fatigue with smartphone technology. Nursing, 49(1), 52-57. Retrieved from https://journals.lwww.com/nursing/fulltext/2019/01000/Solving_alarm_fatigue_with_smartphone_technology.15aspx

Nursing alarm Fatigue NURSING ESSAY