‘Name that Tune’: Alarms in Critical Care – How Good are we at Recognising Them?

Abstract

Audible critical care alarms need to be recognisable and relevant. This study was designed to evaluate whether staff working in intensive care could identify audible alarms. Pre-recorded alarms were played back and staff asked to identify them. Scores for alarm identification were recorded. Nurses were better at alarm identification than doctors. The median score for nursing staff was 19 out of 23 (83%) and 10 out of 23 (43%) for medical staff (p=0.0001). Comparing musical with non-musical individuals, the scores were 17 out of 23 (74%) vs 14.5 out of 23 (63%) respectively, showing no difference between these groups (p=0.488). The three alarms deemed the most critical were poorly recognised by medical staff. In conclusion, nursing staff are better at recognising alarms in our intensive care unit.

Keywords

auditory perception intensive care clinical alarms safety equipment and supplies

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