OK - so this is part vent/part blowing off my anger/part actual complaint.
Here is what happened to me tonight.
Background: 5 staff on evenings for 31 pts. Several high risk fallers, all with bed alarms activated. Pt in question Mr B actually had a fall last night when he got up and bed alarm was not activated.
Event:
I am changing my pt's attends - doing peri care, etc. Just as I finish, I hear a bed alarm go off.I am not assigned to any of the pts with bed alarms so I make the assumption that the nurse resposible for that pt will be responding. However, I quickly finish up, clean my hands and head in the direction of the alarm that is still going. I see no signs of the other 4 people on with me. I get to room, find pt out of bed - I silence the alarm so pt can hear me better and attempt to get him to stand (he is out of bed, hanging on to side rail). He won't release grip on side rail so I can lower it and get him into bed. I hold him for about a minute, figuring the nurse assigned should be responding to bed alarm by now (silenced or not - she should be following up!). NO ONE comes. I cannot reach Mr B's call bell because it is on the far side of the bed - between mattress and side rail - no one could have reached it. Pt in next bed does not speak English and does not understand when I tell him to ring for nurse.
So I start to yell. Help. Help. Name of nurse assigned to pt. Visitor from other side of room comes over (our ward rooms have 4 beds, but there is a wall that goes down the middle so it). I ask her to go find a nurse. Meanwhile, Mr B is starting to slide down. I don't have enough room to lower him safely to floor, and he will still not realease grip so I can lower side rail and get him to side of bed. Finally, nurse assigned "A" comes in. We manage to get him safely back to bed. She says "I didn't hear the alarm". I think to myself, well no S*** Sherlock but hold my tongue- I just tell her shes needs to listen better. I go to nursing station and find the other 3 nurses in the back room charting. And 4th computer is open, so it is clear that is where "A" was. I lost it - it hits me that they didn't respond because they were busy, they didn't respond because they were sitting in an area where they couldn not hear bed alarms, etc - plus they had the TV on. I went in and said "if you are going to sit back here you need to LISTEN better. The bed alarm was going and I was screaming for help and none of you heard me!
They just look at me and one said "well, A did come out" (I still don't know if A heard me yelling, or if the visitor yelled because visitor told me she couldn't find anyone at first).Then I really told them what I thought - I told them the pt could have been hurt, I could have been hurt. There was no need to hide in the back room when there were at least 4 computers available in the nursing station when they could hear bed alarms, etc. I also pointed out that two of them also had pts on bed alarms and they needed to be listening for them!
I guess I made my point because they did come out but I am still just livid about it all.
I know some of you will probably tell me that I am over-reacting but I maintain my stance
Bed alarms are only effective if they are RESPONDED to RIGHT AWAY! If you have a pt on a bed alarm, you need to be listening for it all the time! and even if you are not assigned to the pt on a bed alarm and hear one, respond.
Alright. Vent/rant over.
I should add that they did apologize sort of. One did come up later and apologized again. She is a new grad so I did feel a little bad about blasting her but maybe she learn something from this!
