So what exactly is a bed alarm?

Nurses General Nursing

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  • Specializes in Telemetry, Med-Surg, ED, Psych.

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FLArn

503 Posts

Specializes in Hospice, LTC, Rehab, Home Health.

@nerdtonurse?

LOL We used to call them the "come pick me up off the floor" alarms!

maelstrom143

398 Posts

Specializes in PCU.
@nerdtonurse?

LOL We used to call them the "come pick me up off the floor" alarms!

:lol2::lol2::lol2:

Our facility has both, the bed alarm that can be hooked to the patient on the older beds and the built-in alarm on the newer beds. They can be annoying, but I would rather have them than not. Between the bed alarms and frequent rounding I have often walked in on patients before they decided to "take the plunge" and fall out of bed.

Sometimes my confused patients are startled by the sounds and that makes them hesitate long enough to keep them safe while I reach them. On one occasion, the loud noise, in addition to the "depends", made my patient hesitate just long enough that I was able to keep him safe the whole shift, thank God! On the previous shift, he had walked off and torn the fc out at the same time!!!

I would rather deal w/the annoying sound and lots of prayers to keep my patients safe long enough to allow me to get to them.

Do-over, ASN, RN

1,085 Posts

Specializes in CICU.

Our beds have three settings for the bed alarms - position, exiting, and out-of-bed. For smaller patients, only the OOB setting seems to work.

And, yes, you have to be quick when the alarm goes off...

Specializes in Critical Care.
Wanted to also add that we tend to call them pressure ulcers these days. he only way to prevent pressure ulcers is to frequently perform skin assessments on the client. This means looking at their skin. I have seen many of my fellow students be afraid to undress that patient and really do a good assessment.

The intervention side of it is the patient MUST be turned every two hours at the minimum.

In my mind, hospital acquired pressure ulcers are negligence and could even be considered criminal. There is no excuse.

At my clinical facility they have these fancy ocillating air mattresses that are supposed to help with this. After a lengthy conversation with the skin nurse at the facility, he feels they do more harm than good because nurses feel they no longer have to turn the clients once they have the special mattress.

Sorry, but this really is a pet peeve of mine....

Turning q2 isn't evidence based. Maybe it's not good enough. Or maybe it really only needs to be done q4. And taking it as far to say criminal as a blanket statement could be a little drastic. If you willingly neglect the patient and it develops, sure. But in critical care, some people are just too unstable to turn. I've seen it cause someone to code. And if they have some advanced hemodynamic monitoring on them, you can actually see how it affects them. Or someone in a roto-prone bed and on the oscillator often develops PUs in some odd places. This is just an unfortunate consequence of saving their life.

nerdtonurse?, BSN, RN

1 Article; 2,043 Posts

Specializes in ICU, Telemetry.

I've spent the night trying to keep someone with a carotid thrombus alive -- if they turned their head to one side, they would black out and try to die. We finally but them in a neck collar and made liberal use of kerlex to try to keep their C-spine from being able to rotate. So, no, I didn't turn that man, and I was scare to do so much breathe on him. Went to their endartectomy in the am, they took my contraption off before the pt was sedated, pt moved, clot moved, pt died. P****'d me off beyond belief. I kept them alive for 12 hours, they killed in them in 30 minutes. You can intubate with a collar on, they didn't have to take it off until the pt was safely out. If the pt had gotten a decube on the back of their head, well, we could've done something about that. A massive thrombus crashing into their brain....nope.

Do-over, ASN, RN

1,085 Posts

Specializes in CICU.

Sorry that happened nerdtonurse. Good job, though.

maelstrom143

398 Posts

Specializes in PCU.

OMG:eek: That is horrible! So sorry about such a poor outcome...did they not receive report on this patient or just chose to completely disregard your report??? What ijits.

nerdtonurse?, BSN, RN

1 Article; 2,043 Posts

Specializes in ICU, Telemetry.
OMG:eek: That is horrible! So sorry about such a poor outcome...did they not receive report on this patient or just chose to completely disregard your report??? What ijits.

That particular surgeon was one of those who wouldn't believe the sky was blue if it was a nurse who told him it was...I told them, and documented that I told them that the pt would pass out if they rotated their neck, that I had secured the pt to my best ability, and there had been no syncopal episodes since I had. Even called and told the OR team before I went home, please, please don't take the collar off until the pt's paralyzed (had dementia, so he didn't understand, "DON'T move your head!"). They didn't have him out before he went into the OR, they cut my contraption off, pt turned his head to see what was going on and closed his eyes. They went about getting ready for the OR, put the pt on telemetry and his rhythm was gone. :crying2:

maelstrom143

398 Posts

Specializes in PCU.

That is just heartbreaking! Poor little old man! To work so hard and nearly be there and have it all lost due to stupidity...can't blame you one bit for being angry. I nearly lost a patient cause doc insisted on dc'ing home after repeated phone calls and in person report on change of status. Doc finally listened when I walked into patient's room and guy began coding. Needless to say, doc walked patient to ICU personally... :eek:

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