Too lazy to adjust your alarms? or Don't know how?

SuzieQ_Scrapper · Jul 10, 2011

In the ER I work in, it is against hospital policy to adjust the alarm settings....so....I'm not too lazy or don't know how...it's that I am not allowed. Does it annoy me? Yes, but I have learned to live with it.

caliotter3 · Jul 10, 2011

I turned the volume down on my home health patient's vent because it made me jump through the ceiling and it was not necessary for it to be loud enough to wake the dead, since I was sitting at the bedside, looking directly at the patient and the vent. Someone would come along behind me and crank it up again. So unnecessary.

Been there,done that, ASN, RN · Jul 10, 2011

Sounds like an issue that needs to be addressed.

Can't help you in this forum, though.

I am hopeful you can find a way to explain this to your co-workers effectively.

Sounds like both your patients and your nerves need some rest!

MunoRN, RN · Jul 10, 2011

In the ER I work in, it is against hospital policy to adjust the alarm settings....so....I'm not too lazy or don't know how...it's that I am not allowed. Does it annoy me? Yes, but I have learned to live with it.

Why learn to live with it? Why not get the policy changed?

linearthinker, DNP, RN · Jul 10, 2011

Not only were we not allowed to change our preset alarms, the silence and custom alarm functions were disabled at the factory, so we couldn't anyway.

Why not work to change it? B/C it didn't bother us enough. There were serious issues that needed our attention. It bothered the patients, they complained all the time. We encouraged them to make note of it on their satisfaction surveys. I assume they did, but nothing ever changed. TPTB wanted them on, full volume, factory settings. So be it.

suanna · Jul 10, 2011

I amazed with how many "we aren't allowed" resopnses have come up. I guess it goes without saying, if your policy is nurses aren't able to make appropriate decisions about what constitutes an alarming condition in thier patient, there isn't much else you can do about it but try to find a job where you get at least a modicum of respect and keep trying to get the policy changed while you are stuck where you are working. I guess I was referring to people who work at a hospital where nurses are entitled to make reasonable decisions about thier patients individual needs but choose not to.

MunoRN, RN · Jul 10, 2011

Not adjusting alarms isn't just annoying, it's well known (or at least I thought it was well known), that poorly adjusted alarms is less safe and effective for patients. (Your patients are worse off if you don't adjust your alarms).

laughing weasel · Jul 10, 2011

If it is going off frequently your mind will automatically reduce the priority of the alarm no matter how concientous you are.

psu_213, BSN, RN · Jul 10, 2011

At my previous job we were 'not allowed' to adjust alarm limits. At my current hospital, they are starting an initiative to adjust alarms to each pt (for example, changing the sat low limit to 89%) to prevent alarm fatigue.

As a side note, I recently saw a monitor that had the upper limit alarm for systolic BP set to 277. Not sure how they chose such an exact number (why not just go for 280?). Whatever the reason, pretty sure it was too high!

Biffbradford · Jul 10, 2011

We used to turn the volume down at night as well. Nope ... can't do that any more.

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN · Jul 10, 2011

I amazed with how many "we aren't allowed" resopnses have come up. I guess it goes without saying, if your policy is nurses aren't able to make appropriate decisions about what constitutes an alarming condition in thier patient, there isn't much else you can do about it but try to find a job where you get at least a modicum of respect and keep trying to get the policy changed while you are stuck where you are working. I guess I was referring to people who work at a hospital where nurses are entitled to make reasonable decisions about thier patients individual needs but choose not to.

It is much more common to adjust alarms in the critical care setting than anywhere else., especially in the cardiac surgery setting. In other settings, like the ED,if the alarms get shut off or changed for one patient...the overturn is such that the next patient may suffer the consequences becasue they do not alarm. That is why a lot of ED's have disabled their alarms on off swtiches, to prevent a fatality from accidentially shutting of an alarm. :eek:

In the cardiac surgery setting of critical care.... If I didn't set my alarms custom to my patients I felt I was asking for trouble and performing bad care.........and YES.......It drove me crazy :bugeyes:when someone was either......so uneducated, inexperienced, or frankly too lazy:devil: to set their alarms really would drive me to want to commit a felony. :lol2:

So I feel your pain. I would give an impromptu inservice on the functions of the monitors and their alarms and use their monitor for the example.....just to shut it up!!! :smokin: Other times, I would be blantaly honest and tell them....adjust your alarms and shut that thing up before I got crazy!!!:throcomp: