Factors influencing the nurse’s decision to set and modulate alarm parameters of bedside monitoring in intensive care: an integrative review of literature

Introduction: In critical care units, improper alarm settings for bedside monitoring systems promotes numerous alarms and may lead to nurse fatigue.
Purpose: Achieve an integrative review of the literature to identify the factors that influence the nurse in her decision to set and modulate the alarm parameters of bedside monitoring systems in the intensive care unit. Method: An integrative review of the literature according to the five steps of the Whittemore and Knafl method was carried out from the literature related to the field of critical care.
Results: The factors related to the nurse’s decision to set or modulate the alarm parameters of the monitoring systems are divided into two themes: personal factors and contextual factors.
Discussion: Certain factors identified in this integrative review were also identified as elements that contribute to the clinical surveillance process carried out by expert nurses in a critical care context.
Conclusion: The results of this study suggest the need to focus empirically on the factors influencing the nurse’s decision to adjust and modulate alarm parameters in critical care monitoring systems.