Alarm Fatigue and Nursing Mistakes

Nurses have a high degree of responsibility in the care of patients. Any sort of nursing error can lead to serious consequences.

Some of the more common types of nursing errors include medication errors, improperly monitoring patients and a recently identified phenomenon known as "alarm fatigue."

Alarm fatigue is quite common and results when nurses become desensitized to the constant, ongoing blips and beeps coming from medical equipment. 

If a nurse fails to respond to an alarm it can lead to a patient becoming seriously injured. Patients have died because nurses have not responded to an alarm.

There are some common causes for alarm fatigue which include: 

• alarms not functioning properly;
• nurses having too many alarms to keep track of;
• some alarms sound alike;
• the nurse feels overwhelmed by the number of alarms; and
• nurses may block out the alarm to avoid interruptions. 

In addition, so many false alarms can go off that they can become nothing more than a nuisance to nurses. When this happens frequently, it can lead to a nurse failing to respond quickly or they may simply block out the noise. 

If you have been injured as the result of alarm fatigue or any other type of nursing error, contact a Chicago medical malpractice lawyer who has familiarity with cases involving nursing errors. 

Contacting a Chicago Medical Malpractice Lawyer

At the Law Offices of Barry G. Doyle, P.C, our Chicago medical malpractice lawyer team will examine all aspects of your claim, determine liability, and aggressively pursue the full amount of compensation due to you or your loved one for any injuries or loss of life due to medical malpractice. Contact us today for a free case evaluation - 312-263-1080.