Patient Safety Essay

Alarms have their advantages and disadvantages. However, we could not thrive in nursing without alarms because they save lives. Are they annoying at times, yes they do. In the ICU, alarms are never shut off or turned down; they are set specifically to the patients’ parameters. (Hebda & Czar, 2013, p. 14) stated that “Patient safety is a priority for the health systems, professionals, and consumers around the world.” In the scenario given regarding working in a sterile environment and having my cell phone ringing; I would be truthful and tell my patient that I am doing a sterile procedure and cannot touch the phone at this time. For example, there are several times when doctors and I are doing a sterile procedure and his or her phone or beeper rings, what do they do? In reality, the doctors ask another nurse who is in the sterile environment, but is not a part of the procedure to answer the phone or beeper.
According to Chamberlain College of Nursing (2015), “monitoring equipment does not take the place of clinical nursing judgement.” The nurse must always check on a patient if he or she hears an alarm going off, even if that patient is not assigned to you. Too many times I have encountered where an alarm is going off and the nurse sits on his or her cell phone and do not respond. The logic is simple, because I heard first hand where some nurses would say “Oh, it is not my patient.” Some nurses are so fed up with even the patient who consistently rings the bell because I have seen on many occasions where this particular nurse on my unit who would have her assignment changed because the patient rings the bell too much. This is a pattern for this nurse. Working in the Intensive Care Unit, the alarms are literally
(2015). NR361. Safe Care and Patient Care Technologies Week 6 Lesson 6 Hebda, T., & Czar, P. (2013). Handbook of informatics for nurses & healthcare professionals (5th ed.). Boston: