Perceptions and practices related to clinical alarms.

BACKGROUND: Clinical alarms represent the top hazard listed in the "Top Ten Health Technology Hazards" report. Frequent false alarms can disrupt patient care and reduce trust in alarms. AIM: The aim of the present study was to investigate the perceptions and practices of critical and noncritical care nurses regarding clinical alarms. METHODOLOGY: This was a descriptive analytical study conducted from October 2016 to February 2017 at three hospitals on 197 nurses at Neyshabur University of Medical Sciences in Neyshabur, Northeastern Iran. Participants were selected through stratified random sampling. The perceptions were measured through the 2011 Health care Technology Foundation Clinical Alarms Survey. RESULTS: More than half of the nurses believed that frequent false alarms reduced trust in alarms, leading nurses to inappropriately disable alarms. The nurses ranked frequent false alarms as the most important issue in response to alarms. More than 60% of the nurses indicated that they needed more training on the use of bedside and central monitors. CONCLUSION: The result of this study suggested that frequent false alarms, as the most important issue related to alarms, should be taken into account by hospital administrators and researchers to decrease alarm fatigue and improve alarm system safety. More specialized clinical policies and procedures for alarm management should also be considered.

Dataset on the nurses' knowledge, attitude and practice towards palliative care.

When a patient enters the end stage of life threatening disease like cancer, treatment of pain and other symptoms must be considered to preserve quality of life (Gielen et al., 2011) [1]. Nurses have an important role in the care of patients who suffered from life threatening diseases. End of life cares is one of the routine activities of nurses (Gott et al., 2012) [2]. We surveyed knowledge, attitude and practice of nurses who worked in the hospitals of Neyshabur University of Medical Sciences towards palliative care from January 2016 to May 2016. A self-administered Persian questionnaire was used for data collection. The attitude scale was adopted from Frommelt Attitude toward Care of the Dying (Frommelt, 1991) and the knowledge questions were adopted from the Palliative Care Quiz for Nursing (Ross et al., 1996). The practice questions were also adopted from different related studies. Data analysis was performed by SPSS Statistics software for windows version 16. Our study showed that majority of nurses had favorable attitude but poor knowledge and practice towards palliative care. The results emphasize the importance and need for developing palliative care services in our hospitals.