Alarm fatigue

[Sweetheart2005, ASN]

I work on a med surg unit at a small community hospital. It's a 43 bed unit, but onenofnknmy two med surg units in the hospital.

Bed alarms.are always so sensitive. We used to have a policy that allowed for nursing judgement. A patient who was alert and oriented, fall risk.and ringng appropriately and waiting on assistance to get up did not need a bed alarm. It was per nursing judgement.

Now we have a policy which everyone that is a falls risk isnon a bed alarm. This is my first RN job and in the hospital setting. (i worked in a PCP office as a medical assistant and LPN) is this common practice?

Also we recently changed our bed alarm system. We had them hooked into the call bell system, like a regular call bell.

We also have a staff assist alarm, which we use for emergencies (codes, rapid responee, falls--anythjng we need more nursing hands immediately)

Bed alarms are noe hooked into the staff assist alarm. It's already started the point t (after 2-3days) response to the staff assist is a slower when we see a nursenor aide isnin a room of a known impulsive patient.

Any thoughts on suggestions to management,?

Patients are worried and confused sleeping even less, and thiknirs a fire alarm.or something.