The effects of alarm fatigue on the tendency to make medical errors in nurses working in intensive care units

Alarm fatigue resulting from exposure to multiple alarms is an important problem that threatens patient safety. The fact that each device in intensive care units works with different alarm systems increases the number and variety of alarms.

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of alarm fatigue on the tendency of nurses working in intensive care units to make medical errors.

A cross-sectional and correlational design were used in this study. The study was carried out with 382 intensive care nurses who could be reached via an electronic questionnaire. Data were collected using a 'Personal Information Form', the 'Alarm Fatigue Scale (AFS)' and the 'Medical Error Tendency Scale in Nursing (METSN)'.

The mean age of the nurses who were included in the study was 31.52 ± 5.66. While 70.2% of the participants were women, 67% had bachelor's degrees, and 65.4% had been working in the intensive care unit for 1-5 years. The mean total METSN score of the participants was 229.29 ± 15.32, and their mean total AFS score was 20.02 ± 6.15. A negative and weak significant correlation was found between the total mean AFS and METSN scores of the participants (r = -0.275; p < .001). As the alarm fatigue levels of the participants increased, their medical error tendencies increased. It was determined that a one-unit increase in the alarm fatigue level of intensive care nurses increased their tendency to make medical errors by 0.263 units (p < .001).

It was found that the nurses had a low tendency to make medical errors and moderate levels of alarm fatigue, and an increase in their alarm fatigue levels significantly increased their medical error tendencies.

Institutions should establish alarm management procedures in units with multiple alarm systems, such as intensive care units, and examine the effects of alarms on employees.