Brunner & Suddarth's Textbook of Medical-Surgical Nursing 13th Edition by Kerry Cheever, Janice Hinkle

Exercise 3

ECG monitoring is a common practice in all types of inpatient units and isused to keep patients safe from life-threatening dysrhythmias.However, frequentfalse alarms can be overwhelming to nurses, causing the alarms to go unnoticed orignored, a condition known as alarm fatigue. Discuss the evidence and the strength ofthe evidence that identifies alarm fatigue as a serious problem.From this evidence,describe ECG monitoring best practices aimed at minimizing the risk of alarm fatigue.Include in this description the skin care, electrode placement, lead selection andrationale for monitoring, and alarms that you will individualize to meet the ECGmonitoring needs of the patient.