One of my residents is diagnosed with Schizophrenia. Most of the time she is confused, restlessness, sleepless, wandering, and anxious. She is a fall risk and bed alarm, chair alarm and personal monitor are used. One night her bed alarm was defected and chair alarm was used in its place. Chair alarm was so sensitive even with a slight move in the bed, it kept going off, annoyed and woke her up. I was worried that she would be aggitated from that annoying sound. In our nursing textbook, physiologic needs (oxygen, water,food, temp, elimination, sexuality, physical activity, and rest) are first priority and safety is second. When other options were not available like replace with another bed alarm or having maintenance to fix it, I wanted to remove the chair alarm to provide the resident with stimulation free environment so she could get a full rest. But when I asked other nurses, they would put safety first. If you were in my shoes what would you do?
