Alarm Fatigue and Clinical Competence of Iranian Neonatal Intensive Care Nurses

Background: Inadequate qualifications of nurses are one of the predisposing factors for the occurrence of clinical errors in care units. Furthermore, false alarms reduce the response time and nurses' trust in alarms, which can cause them to suffer from alarm fatigue in the long run.Aim: The determining alarm fatigue and clinical competence of Iranian neonatal intensive care nurses.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 140 neonatal intensive care nurses were selected by the census method. The data collection tools included a demographic questionnaire, the “Nurse Competence Scale” and an “Alarm fatigue questionnaire”. Data were analyzed using descriptive and analytical statistics.Results: The average alarm fatigue score was 21.61 ± 7.45 and above average. Most of the researched nurses, that means 75% of them, had very good clinical qualifications. The average score of clinical competence in nurses was 174.76± 26.74 and was evaluated at a very good level. This study shows the relationship between alarm fatigue and clinical competence in the teaching–coaching subscale among nurses (p= 0/019).Conclusion: This study shows the relationship between alarm fatigue and clinical competence in the teaching–coaching subscale among NICU nurses. Therefore, more planning should be done to improve education. It is necessary to adopt solutions according to standard guidelines to reduce alarms and to monitor the physiological monitoring systems in hospitals because not paying attention to these issues leads to the fatigue of the alarms of nurses, which itself has many consequences for nurses and patients.

Alarm Fatigue and Clinical Competence of Iranian Neonatal Intensive Care Nurses Keywords:

Alarm Fatigue , Nurse Clinical Competence , Neonatal Intensive Care Unit