Case-Assignment: Environmental Distractions

Case-Assignment: Environmental Distractions
Case-Assignment: Environmental Distractions
Case-Assignment: Environmental Distractions
Week 6 discussion Distractors in our Environment Distractions are everywhere. They may include cellphones, the alarms sounding for multiple different reasons, overhead paging, monitors beeping, and staff interrupting our thoughts. Give an example of an ethical or legal issue that may arise if a patient has a poor outcome or sentinel event because of a distraction such as alarm fatigue. What does evidence reveal about alarm fatigue and distraction when it comes to patient safety?
Distractions are everywhere. They may include cellphones, the alarms sounding for multiple different reasons, overhead paging, monitors beeping, and staff interrupting our thoughts. Give an example of an ethical or legal issue that may arise if a patient has a poor outcome or sentinel event because of a distraction such as alarm fatigue. What does evidence reveal about alarm fatigue and distraction when it comes to patient safety? I am looking forward to our discussion this week as I believe this is a very important topic and really can impact patient care and safety.
Alarm Fatigue is a growing problem in the healthcare industry. “Alarm fatigue is the desensitization of a clinician to an alarm stimulus that results from sensory overload causing the response of an alarm to be delayed or missed.” (McCartney, 2012). There are many types of distractors within hospital settings that play a role in alarm fatigue. Often times alarms start going off and the nurse disregards it. This can be a major issue because those alarms are there for a reason. If an alarm is going off, then it means that there could be something going on with your patients. Ignoring these alarms can lead to serious injury, neglect, and even death. Ethicalissuescouldarise from such environmental distractorsamonghospital settings. Negligence on thepart ofthe nursescouldcauseavertibleorpreventabledeaths.for example,awarning device, say that monitorsoxygenusecouldhave beensetwrongresultingina premature cut ofoxygensupplyandthuscausing the death of a patient.