Question

Distractions are everywhere. They may include cellphones, multiple alarms sounding, overhead paging, monitors beeping, and various interruptions that disrupt your train of thought.

Give an example of an ethical or legal issue that may arise if a patient has a poor outcome or sentinel event because of a distraction such as alarm fatigue. What does evidence reveal about alarm fatigue and distractions in healthcare when it comes to patient safety? please include reference, cite, and please do not copy and paste. thank you

Answer 1

Alarm fatigue is also called as alert fatigue. This is usually set in monitors to know the status of patients in ICU.

This occurs when one is continuously exposed to this sounds they get desensitized to it causing patients life under danger by healthcare professionals.

Some of the ethical issues arising out of this is patient negligence which is not acceptable in this sector.Some reading like vital signs and blood glucose,heart monitor, ventilator beep so frequently vwhich makes human to feel loss of urgency and decrease attention grabbing power.

Evidence reveal that there is tuning out because of continuous alarm.This makes the health care professionals to miss the most important critical situation of patient and thus endangering their life.