Evaluation of alarm fatigue of nurses working in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Service: A mixed methods study.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To reveal the existence of alarms in COVID-19 intensive care units, where medical devices with alarm function are frequently used, the effects of alarms on nurses, especially their on-the-job performances and social lives, and their coping methods. METHODOLOGY/METHODS: This was a mixed design, including descriptive and qualitative research methods with two stages, and was carried out between March and April 2021. The study adhered to the STROBE checklist for cross-sectional studies and the COREQ guidelines for qualitative studies. SETTING: Nurses in the COVID-19 intensive care unit of a university hospital constituted the sample. 58 nurses participated in the quantitative data phase, and 18 nurses in the qualitative interviews. RESULTS: More than half of the nurses worked in the COVID-19 intensive care unit for more than 5 months and overtime, and 87.9 had day and night shifts. The monthly income level of 65.5% was between the hunger and poverty lines, and 12.1 % received psychiatric support in the last 6 months. A positive and significant relationship was found between the mean score obtained from the alarm fatigue questionnaire and the level of discomfort felt due to the alarms (1-10 points) (p = 0.001). Five themes and thirty sub-themes were emerged in the focus group interviews. CONCLUSION: The number of alarms of the medical devices in the COVID-19 intensive care units was more than the other intensive care units, resulting in fatigue in nurses. Since alarm fatigue is directly related to patient safety, the effective management of medical device alarms can reduce alarm fatigue and prevent potentially dangerous outcomes. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Nurses care for patients with severe clinical conditions in COVID-19 intensive care units. This situation caused them to be exposed to more alarms. Nurses should make efforts to reduce their alarm intensity.

Evaluation of Caregiver Burden of Family Members Providing Support for the Care of Patients Undergoing Brain Surgery at the Hospital.

AIM: The brain regulates various functions which control and coordinate the body. As brain surgeries influence the structures that regulate body functions, they can cause serious complications in patients, such as disability or death. This study aimed to determine the caregiver burden of family members providing support for the care of patients who had undergone brain surgery. METHOD: The descriptive study was done with family members of 102 patients who had surgery at the neurosurgery department of a university hospital in Turkey. Data were collected using the descriptive features form for the patients, descriptive features form for the care providing family members, Zarit Care Load Scale adjusted for the clinic, and Barthel daily living activities index. RESULTS: The results of the study revealed that patients undergoing neurosurgery were dependent to an extreme level and that care providing family members had mild or moderate level of care load. A statistically significant difference was found between the averages of family members and their age, sex, marital status, education level, monthly income level, and working status (p < .05). CONCLUSION: As the level of dependency of the patients undergoing neurosurgery increased, the load of the family members providing care also increased. It would be beneficial to evaluate the support sources owned by care providing family members for taking care of patients and to direct them to people and institutions from where they could get assistance.