[Audit of the bedside monitor alarms in a critical care unit]

Abstract

Aims: Quantifying and evaluating the response to the bedside monitor alarms (BMA) by nurses in intensive care unit (ICU).

Metodology: Prospective observational study (October 2011-January 2012). Randomized blind audit on alarm management. Alarm programming and alarm limits were related to experience in ICU. We evaluated the response to BMA with the variables: alarm type (relevant/not relevant/alert) and response type. Descriptive analysis of variables for multivariate ANOVA and Chi-square test with SPSS 17.0.

Results: 434 audits were analyzed. The programming was: Blood pressure (BP) 88.25%, heart rate (HR) 98.62% O(2) saturation (SO) 96.79%, respiratory rate (FR) 65.75%. The alarms originated were BP 49.73%, 10.75% HR, 39.25% SO, 3.27% FS. The nurse responded to 93.3% of them and 50% were treated before 10 sec. 56.16% of the alarms were not relevant, 25.12% relevant and 18.72% alerting. 41.8% were due to handling.

Conclusion: The alarms are programmed/attended by the nurse and there is uniformity in programming/selection limits. 25% of BMA carried therapeutic attitude.

Keywords: Alarm; Alarma; Critical care; Cuidados críticos; Enfermería; Nursing; Parameters monitored; Parámetros monitorizados.