Military Nurse Showcases Evidence-based Innovation

A nurse from the San Antonio Military Medical Center (SAMMC) recently shared her research on reducing alarm fatigue during a joint military course in San Antonio, Texas.

Army Capt. Amanda Rodriguez provided details on her patient safety project, which sought to reduce false physiological alarms and improve patient safety.

“Many studies have demonstrated as many as 99 percent of alarm signals may be false and can result in patient harm or death when a clinically actionable alarm is missed due to alarm fatigue,” Rodriguez told participants at the TriService Nursing Research Program’s Research and Evidence-based Practice Dissemination course.

Nurses in Rodriguez’s project implemented the American Association of Critical-care Nurses Practice Alert for Alarm Management at SAMMC, which involves reviewing alarm setting and patient-specific tailoring of the physiological alarms during every shift. After a six-week trial, alarms were reduced by more than 900 fewer per day. The results were well received at SAMMC and show the value of implementing and sharing evidence-based research, Rodriguez said.