The Effect of Alarm Fatigue on the Tendency to Make Medical Errors in Surgical Intensive Care Nurses: A Correlational Study Examining the Role of Moderating Factors.

Abstract

Introduction: In surgical intensive care units, monitoring and interventions are performed utilizing advanced technologies. The warning alarms of these devices jeopardize patient safety by inducing fatigue in staff. Aim: The objective is to assess the impact of alarm fatigue on the tendency for medical errors among nurses in surgical intensive care units. Method: The current study employed a cross-sectional and correlational design. Data were gathered from 201 surgical intensive care nurses through an online survey approach and snowball sampling technique. The data collection instruments employed were the "Personal Information Form", the "Alarm Fatigue Scale", and the "Medical Error Tendency Scale in Nursing". Results: The mean total score for alarm fatigue among nurses in surgical intensive care units was found to be 16.42 ± 5.47, while the mean total score for the tendency to make medical errors was 180.57 ± 24.32. A negative moderate correlation was identified between alarm fatigue and a tendency for medical errors. This finding indicates that as alarm fatigue increases, the score reflecting the tendency to make medical errors decreases; however, this decrease suggests an actual increase in the tendency for medical errors. Nurses' alarm fatigue accounted for 14.5% of the total variance in the tendency to commit medical errors. A unit increase in alarm fatigue was found to correlate with a 0.381 unit increase in the likelihood of medical errors. Conclusions: Nurses exhibited moderate levels of alarm fatigue and a tendency for medical mistakes. The tendency for medical errors escalated markedly with the rise in alarm fatigue.