Summary: Improving Patient Monitoring

Words: 267
Pages: 2

Nurses are exposed to hundreds of medical devices alarms that go off each day. Many of those alarms are false and don't require action. As a result, nurses become desensitized to the sound which can put patients' health and lives in danger. “Serious adverse medical events may occur due to inappropriate alarm response and intervention” (Horkan, 2014). Alarms should not be ignored. “An important concept to keep in mind is that monitoring equipment does not take the place of clinical nursing judgment. All nurses providing patient care need to be competent in the operation of this monitoring equipment and alert to the fact that the monitoring technology is a tool for the nurse to use along with the five senses” (CCN, lesson 6, 2015). The Joint