Visitor silencing neighboring alarms - Page 4

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  1. Aug 24, '12 by
    Quote from jt43
    Flame me if you want, but if I were visiting my child or spouse in the hospital and their roommate's IV pump was alarming *for 10 minutes*, I would silence it too. Especially when there's a little button that says "silence" so clearly marked. Imo, 10 minutes is WAY too long for a call to be left unanswered and for an alarm to be sounding.
    Wow-even if you have NO idea what could be going on with the rest of the floor? I think tampering with someone's medical equipment should be a police matter.
    I have cared for a resident who was sexually assaulted by another resident's visiting family member,have had to Heimlich a resident after another resident's visiting family member gave her an innapropriate snack and cared for a resident whose roomate cut his feeding tube with scissors (staff didn't get there fast enough when the pump "beeped") he had to go the the hospital for a replacement. In all of these cases management failed (IMHO) to protect the resident. What has to happen before this kind of thing is taken seriously.
    Not_A_Hat_Person and BrandonLPN like this.
  2. Aug 24, '12 by
    We've probably all been visiting a family member and been tempted to silence their beeping iv or pca. I will admit to silencing my mother-in-law's pump once while waiting for the nurse to return with a new bag of fluids (the nurse had already been in, checked it and must have gotten momentarily side tracked. MIL was anxious and the beeping wan't helping). but never never never would i dream of touching another patient's pump.
    I don't even like to touch them when i am working my adn job - i don't know anything about the patients on the units usually.

    The OP's scenario was handled appropriately and hopefully that visitor with "medical training" learned a lesson that day.

    God, can you imagine being a patient and your roomie's visitor messes with your pump?! That had to be scary for the patient, especially if the patient didn't have "medical training"
  3. Aug 24, '12 by
    Quote from needshaldol
    Well I had a youngish woman patient who had a central line and when she decided to get up to use the bathroom she would disconnect the line! So it did not alarm as the pump thought it was still infusing into the patient but it was infusing into the bed or wherever she left it. Then she would come back and just plug her self back up. I told her she could NOT do that and her answer was "at the other hospital they let me".
    that sounds familiar
  4. Aug 24, '12 by
    Quote from jt43
    Flame me if you want, but if I were visiting my child or spouse in the hospital and their roommate's IV pump was alarming *for 10 minutes*, I would silence it too. Especially when there's a little button that says "silence" so clearly marked. Imo, 10 minutes is WAY too long for a call to be left unanswered and for an alarm to be sounding.
    I sincerely hope you're just spouting off, because if you really INTEND to interfere with another patient's alarms, you're seriously in the wrong. Ten minutes really isn't that long if one of the patients on the other end of the hall just fell and everyone is in there trying to get him up, or if someone is trying to die. Especially if the IV that's alarming isn't a vasoactive drip.
    jt43 likes this.
  5. Aug 24, '12 by
    Ok, I'm spouting. Lol. I wouldn't really mess with the pump, but I would raise hell. 10 mins of alarming (barring any emergency on the unit) is unacceptable and I applaud the OP for answering the call light.

    I was also trying to point out that for non-medical professionals, being in a frustrating situation (imagine a child who just went to sleep and waking up bc of the alarm) I would probably push the "silence" button. I know better because of my training, but the average person doesn't. All they know is the alarm is bothering their loved one and there's that tempting "silence" button. I understand how it happens. And I don't blame the patient's visitor (who probably didn't know better), I blame the system for not being able to answer alarms in a timely manner. What's the visitor supposed to think if an alarm goes off for 10 minutes and no one comes other than it's not important? 10 mins is a LONG time if you're stuck in the room with the alarm.
    Last edit by jt43 on Aug 24, '12
  6. Aug 24, '12 by
    I can only speak from the visitor/patient prospective atm....Those alarms do get annoying but I would never touch anything. When you are in a medical facility it is just expect that you will hear things such as alarms. Some people are so arrogant. I'm glad it wasn't anything fatal. I would have been so dumbfounded when she told me she silenced the alarm. I don't know how you stopped your eyes from jumping out of your head. I guess it comes with experience.
  7. Aug 25, '12 by
    Words cannot describe how livid I would have been either as the patient or the nurse.
  8. Aug 25, '12 by
    Quote from nu rn
    So happy my floor has private rooms!

    On a side note, earlier this summer my mother was hospitalized (not my facility) & I happened to be there when her fluids were running low. The alarm went off & we used the call light. A CNA came in, silenced it, & added more volume to be infused! I was completely shocked. The alarm went off again & a 2nd CNA silenced it. A third time, the 1st CNA silenced it again, adding a little more volume. CNAs are written up for that type of thing where I work. I don't have as much issue with it being silenced once as long as the RN follows up to check it, but no one but the nurse should be adjusting the settings!
    Dismissable offence for anyone but an RN to touch pumps in our hospital. We are not even allowed to silence them, officially. If we messed with the VTBI, we would be in SERIOUS trouble.
  9. Guide
    Aug 27, '12 by
    For the most part, no one--patient or visitor--should be messing with anyone else's pump. I do think there should be some leeway for silencing your own or a family member's pump--with one BIG proviso. The call light should immediately be pushed and staff notified that the alarm is beeping. Lather, rinse, and repeat until someone comes in and takes care of business.

    Newer pumps have a lovely feature that can actually notify the nurse on a zone phone when the alarm goes off. Older ones (the majority) rely solely on medical staff hearing the beeping or having someone in the room push the call light to tell them the pump is going off.

    I'm not sure visitors (or other patients) understand that we can't always hear the beeping over the hallway noise, the phones, the chatter and TV noise from the rooms, and the general hubbub in our own heads. If the door is closed, I can just about guarantee that the average alarm doesn't stand a chance of registering. We need to make it clear that if someone is disturbed by the sound of an alarm, the best thing they can do is use the call light or come out into the hallway to let someone know it's going off.

    On our end, even if it's not our patient, there should be a priority placed on silencing an alarm and making certain that the correct nurse is notifed.

    Maybe there should be an addition to the room orientation that actually says, "All patient devices, including IV pumps, are off-limits and should not be touched by anyone other than staff members. If an alarm goes off and you are concerned, please, push the call light and let us know, so we can take care of it."
    amoLucia likes this.
  10. Sep 6, '12 by
    Quote from Cold Stethoscope
    A while back, while I was treated with IV antibiotics after an iatrogenic intestinal perforation, my IV pump would regularly act up and sound the alarm (often because the tubing would become occluded from slight kinks), and, rather than listening to the interminable beeping (yes, understaffing), I called the nurse and silenced the alarm. No one ever told me not to. Perhaps the nurse thought a tech came by and shut off the alarm.
    Me too. When they told me not to touch it I told them I'm not listening to the stupid thing for more than 15 minutes if I call and they don't come. Meanwhile the whole time it's beeping my elderly slightly demented roommate is screaming at me "SHUT THAT @!#$ thing off!" like I have something to do with it. Yes, I was a bad bad patient. I reviewed my chart at a later date and was surprised there were no detailed notes or CYA notes about what a bad patient I was.

    If it were up to me I would allow certain patients to push their own silence buttons or restart buttons. Lucky for patient safety it's not up to me, lol. You usually only have to tell them once not to touch the equipment. However I didn't know there was a lock on the pump until last week. I need to learn how to use it in all my spare time because yes there are family members and patients who will mess with their own stuff when you can't get to it within 5 minutes.