Essay On Patient Alarms

During hourly rounds assess the patients pain level and take necessary intervention to alleviate pain, reposition patients who need assistance and make sure that urinals and call light and telephone are within reach of the patient. Taking care of these needs in a timely manner will make the patient comfortable, which will reduce anxiety and stress levels in the patient and reduce the risk of falls. The nurse should always make sure that the environment is safe for the patient by keeping the area clutter free. Comfort measures like tightening the wrinkled bed, giving warm blanket, changing moist dressings or repositioning the tubes or other objects that bothering the patient can enhance their comfort level Monitor high risk patients with delirium, dementia, hypotension, medications, and other conditions which can increase the risk of fall. Providing safety companions for continuous observation and to help the patients will reduce the number of falls. Nurses should educate and encourage patients to use the call light and phone to call for help. Provide patients with appropriate assistive devices like cane, walker as needed to keep them steady. I believe the concept in this theory of comfort can be utilized to reduce the occurrence of falls in health care settings.

In the hierarchy of evidence, this article is a level II. It is a random control trial (RCT). The study was conducted on five inpatient psychiatric units a high acuity adult, a geriatric, a substance abuse and a child and adolescent unit. My hospital serves all of these populations. Each unit served a control for the other because the interventions were implemented over time in varying order. This study looked at inpatient psychiatric unit to determing how the systematic implementation of behavioral interventions will influence the rate of seclusion and restraints over 3 ½-year period of time. The interventions included trauma informed care, changes to unit rules and language, changes to the physical environment and patient involvement in treatment plans. Trauma-informed care (TIC) is the intervention I have proposed to

The Joint Commission introduced the National Patient Safety Goals to address patient safety issues within health care organizations. The National Patient Safety Goals (NPSGs) were established in 2002 in order to assist the institutions that are accredited address issues relating to patient safety. Their implementation started in January 2003, a process that has undergone review to the latest year 2016 version which introduced the second level of implementation of clinical alarms utilization to promote patient safety (JCI, 2016).

Answering the call light (also called call bell a handheld like that is attached to the patient room wall, above the headboard of the bed) in a timely manner by the nursing staff in hospital setting is necessary to prevent falls that can harm, prolonged stays, and unnecessarily increase the cost of healthcare. However, researches concerning call light uses as it relates to patient safety, patient-care management and patient satisfaction are limited (Meade et al. 2006). Patients and their families emphasize that nurses should monitor patients constantly and provide assistance and answer a call light in a timely manner (Yoder, 2011). Note that the falls may be caused by several factors such as

Patients depend on healthcare professionals through the use of call lights. Many different factors can affect a patient’s ability to function independently such as “cognitive impairments, visual loss, and decreased mobility” patients turn to call lights for assistance (Huey-Ming, 2010). Unfortunately, if a nurse or certified nursing assistant is occupied risks occur and can ultimately lead to injuries of patients due to help not received at that given moment. In the journal titled Perspectives of Patients and Families About the Nature of and Reasons for Call Light Use and Staff Call Light Response Time written by Huey- Ming Tzeng, patients felt “staff responsiveness to call lights often affect nurse-patient communication, patient

In addition, high risk participants received education relating to falls which involved nurses instructing participants not to get out of bed without assistance, to press the call-bell for assistance and how to use the call-bell. As part of this study protocol, participants in the intervention group received usual care which include: fall risk assessment, placing the call-bell, TV remote control, eyeglasses, dentures, and hearing aids within the patient’s reach. Other interventions that have been used were bed and chair alarms, bed was in the lowest position at all time except when care was being provided and bed brakes were locked at all times. The patient’s elimination needs were scheduled every two hours, bedside commode was provided for frequent elimination needs, the patient was not left unattended while on bedside commode or in the bathroom. For a safe bathroom environment toilets was raised, toilet seats were secure, and handrails was strong enough to support patients, and patient was also instructed to pull the call light if feeling dizzy or in need of any assistance . Furthermore, the room temperature was

Change in PracticeThe Red Heart Safety ProgramThe Red Heart Safety Program•HIPPA friendly rapid identification of patients at risk for PAH rebound•Best evidence/information at the team’s fingertipsThe Red Heart Safety Program1.Red Heart Sign on the monitor in the patient’s room.2.On the side facing the room, the card will have a red heart to alert staff to the patients risk for PAH.3.On the opposite side, instructions for care of this patient using evidence based practice.The Red Heart Safety Sign (front

Goal 6: Know Your Alarms. Alarms familiarity on your unit is integral to the best patient safety. Take faulty

Clinical alarm systems in acute and critical care health care settings are an assistive way to maintain communication between the client and the nurse. Awareness and comprehension of health devices is crucial to provide nurses with appropriate strategies for critical or non critical interventions that can lead to sentinel events. The ECRI, a nonprofit institute, has identified alarm hazards as the “Top Ten Health Technology Hazards” for 2014. (cite) In 2013 The Joint Commission published a Sentinel Event Alert proposing a National Safety Goal to focus on alarm safety (cite). This topic is pertinent information to be recognized and set as an achievable action in improving patient safety.

To assess a patient’s risk for hospitalization, a screening tool will be implemented. The screening tool is called Care at Hand (CAH) (Care at Hand, 2017). This is a validated tool that assesses an individual’s risk for hospitalization. CAH asks two sets of screening questions. The first set of questions assesses an individual’s overall risk for hospitalization (Care at Hand, 2017). The second set of questions assesses active issues (Care at Hand, 2017). These issues could be medical or social. The tool can assess for medical as well as social determinants. Once the assessment is complete the individual is given a risk score. The scores range from a low, moderate to high risk for hospitalization. The health coach and the RN work with the client to resolve the identified issues. This intervention would continue until the identified issue was resolved. Thereafter the health coach would conduct bi-monthly follow-up at which time the individual would be reassessed for hospitalization risk (Care at Hand, 2017). There is no end date for the program the client would

Multiple sources cite false alarms in anywhere from 72-99% of all alarms (Ensslin, 2014; Meeks, 2014; Sendelbach & Funk, 2013). Clinical alarms are in place to enhance patient safety by alerting health care workers to deviations in predetermined normal status (Sendelbach and Funk, 2013), but with up to 1000 electronic alerts and alarms each shift, it is difficult to know which alarms to respond to (Duggan, 2016). In labor and delivery, two lives are depending on the nurse to know which alarms are important to respond to. In addition to the safety of the patient, persistent alarms affect the labor experience of the patient and family, contributing to increased stress and anxiety and decreasing the holistic experience (Meeks, 2014). Many times

The quasi-experimental research design was used in this study by Hevener et al. (2016), to explore the cause and effect relationship of the DST on the reduction in the number of restraints used in the ICU. The scope of this study included the participation of all 32 clinical staff members assigned to an eight-bed ICU at a major trauma center in California (Hevener et al., 2016). The study participants completed a checklist each shift documenting the use of the DST, the outcomes related to restraint use, and any adverse effects noted related to medical devices (Hevener et al., 2016). Once the control data was collected, the study participants received online as well as individualized education related to the use of a DST, the indications for restraint use and alternatives to use prior to the use of the restraints (Hevener et al., 2016).

The facility I work at; patient safety is a priority. Part of the admission assessment, we have recently started using the Morse Fall Scale (networkofcare.org). According to the website, “A large majority of nurses (82.9%) rate the scale as “quick and easy to use,” and 54% estimated that it took less than 3 minutes to rate a patient.” Morse Fall Scale Assessment is a simple method to identify patients at risk while in the hospital. The evaluation is based on variables such as: history of falling, secondary to diagnosis, gait, ambulatory aid, IV or heparin lock, and mental status. If a patient is known high risk to fall, some implementations has been put into place are responding urgently to call lights, keeping every needed item within patient’s

The MDT would also have to consider psychosocial factors. One major psychological factor would be anxiety. Anxiety can have an effect on the respiratory system and can contribute to hyperventilation (Kelly, 2014). Some things nursing staff could do to counteract this is to give the patient reassurance. A way they can do this is exploring the patient's ideas, concerns and expectations. It is important to make sure the patient is able to convey their fears. Another way to decrease anxiety is to summarise all stages of care and explain what’s happening e.g. taking a blood pressure or placing a cannula (Kular, 2014). One reason for an increase in anxiety might be because he cannot communicate because of his breathlessness. This is why it is recommended

Safety is in an important part of health care. Today as the safety monitor I realized how many little things that we miss everyday can greatly impact a person’s life. For example, checking to make sure that the bed is locked. I think this was a great assignment that really shows that you should pay a little more attention to safety, even make it part of your assessment.