An In-Service Educational Package Improves Alarm Management in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU): Before and After Study

Abstract

Background:

Monitoring in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) largely relies on equipment which have a number of alarms that are often quite loud. This creates a noisy environment, and moreover leads to desensitization of health-care personnel, whereby potentially important alarms may also be ignored. The objective was to evaluate the effect of an educational package on alarm management (the number of alarms, response to alarms, and appropriateness of settings).

Methods:

A before and after study was conducted at a tertiary neonatal care center in a teaching hospital in India involving all health-care professionals (HCP) working in the high dependency unit. The intervention consisted of demo lectures about working of alarms and bedside demonstrations of customizing alarm limits. A pre- and postintervention questionnaire was also administered to assess knowledge and attitude toward alarms. The outcomes were the number and type of alarms, response time, appropriateness of HCP response, and appropriateness of alarm limits as observed across a 24-h period which were compared before and after the intervention.

Findings:

The intervention resulted in a significant decrease in the number of alarms (11.6-9.6/h). The number of times where appropriate alarm settings were used improved from 24.3% to 67.1% (P < .001). The response time to alarm did not change significantly (225 s vs 200 s); however, the appropriate response to alarms improved significantly from 15.6% to 68.8%.

Conclusion:

A simple structured intervention can improve the appropriate management of alarms.

Application to Practice:

Customizing alarm limits and nursing education reduce the alarm burden in NICUs