Patterns of Alarm Fatigue and Their Predictors Among Nurses in Intensive Care Units: A Latent Profile Analysis

The clinical alarms from various medical instrument and equipment are becoming a new challenge for staff in intensive care unit workplace. This study revealed the latent profiles of alarm fatigue among intensive care unit (ICU) nurses and to explore their predictors. A cross-sectional survey was conducted from 2023 to 2024 using the nurses' alarm fatigue questionnaire (NAFQ) to measure the alarm fatigue of 725 ICU nurses in China. The overall alarm fatigue of nurses in ICUs is at a medium-high level. Three classes of alarm fatigue were identified by latent profile analysis and influenced by multiple factors (i.e., whether working overtime, whether having alarm management protocol in the wards, clinical false alarm experience, and alarm function cognition). This study suggests that administrators provide tailored supports and interventions to reduce alarm fatigue of nurses in ICUs based on the characteristics of their alarm fatigue profiles.