Effectiveness of interventions developed to reduce alarm fatigue in intensive care units: systematic review and meta-analysis study

ABSTRACT

Objective

This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to research on the effect of the interventions developed to reduce alarm fatigue in intensive care units.

Methods

Three researchers independently searched 14 databases. The databases were scanned to access articles published between 01.01.2010 and 31.12.2022. The Joanna Briggs Institute Meta-Analysis of Statistics Assessment and Review Instruments (JBI-MAStARI) were used to assess methodological quality. The study is preregistered on PROSPERO (CRD42023387649).

Results

Of the 11632 studies, 19 articles that met the criteria were included in the systematic review, and seven articles were included in the meta-analysis study. While the effect of the strategies applied in reducing alarm fatigue was found to be significant in five articles (p < 0.05). The meta-analysis results showed that strategies implemented to reduce alarm fatigue may have a significant effect (p > 0.05) in reducing nurses' alarm fatigue.

Seven of the articles included in the systematic review showed that the implemented interventions indicated that decline in the perception of the existence of non-actionable/false alarms. After the intervention, the proportion of nurses who agreed with the statement that non-actionable/false alarms interrupted patient care increased, while in another study, the number of nurses who believed that alarms were missed and/or responses were delayed increased.

Conclusion

In this study, the effect size obtained from all articles was not significant and showed that the interventions may not have an effect on reducing alarm fatigue.

KEYWORDS:

• Alarm fatigue
• clinical alarm management
• intervention
• meta-analysis
• systematic review

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all expert academicians and nurses who helped in the keyword determination process, as well as the library director of Dokuz Eylül University.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Conflict of Interest

All authors have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gulnur Gul

Gulnur Gul, BSN, PhD is working at Dokuz Eylül University, Institute of Health Sciences, Department of Nursing Management Balcova, Izmir, Turkey. She is a Charge Nurse, at Health Sciences University, Dr. Suat Seren Chest Diseases and Surgery Education Research Hospital.

Seyda Seren Intepeler

Seyda Seren Intepeler, BSN, PhD a professor, Nursing Management Department, Dokuz Eylul University, Faculty of Nursing, Balcova, Izmir, Turkey.

Murat Bektas

Murat Bektas, BSN, PhD is a professor, Department of Pediatric Nursing, Dokuz Eylul University, Faculty of Nursing, Balcova, Izmir, Turkey.