Design and Validation of a German Language Questionnaire for Measuring Alarm Fatigue in Intensive Care Units

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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False-positive and non-actionable alarms can lead to staff desensitization (alarm fatigue) and thus patient endangerment. With this study the investigators create a basic tool to survey alarm fatigue of intensive care staff: the first German language alarm fatigue questionnaire.

Detailed Description
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In intensive care units (ICUs), patients' vital signs are monitored automatically. As soon as one of the parameters indicates a critical or potentially critical condition, an alarm is triggered on the ward. However, if there are too many alarms, even most of which are false or require no treatment, ward staff may develop alarm fatigue and become desensitized to alarms. This puts patients at risk, especially by overhearing critical alarms. Overburdening staff with alarms is part of everyday life in most ICUs. Considering the demographic development as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, it is to be expected that the number of intensive care patients and thus also the alarm burden in intensive care units will increase. This will also be exacerbated by the increasing digitization of the ICU. Evidence-based and data-driven alarm management enables clinicians to trust alarms again. With this study the investigators create a basic tool to survey alarm fatigue of intensive care staff: the first German language alarm fatigue questionnaire. The questionnaire will be collected in two phases. With the data from the first phase (N ≈ 300), the investigators aim to uncover any structure that may be latent in the questionnaire data (by exploratory factor analysis) and reduce the number of questions from 27 to  15. The reduced questionnaire will be collected in the second phase (N ≈ 300 - 400). With the data obtained, the investigators intend to test the structure postulated in the first survey in a confirmatory factor analysis.

Official Title
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Design and Validation of a German Language Questionnaire for Measuring Alarm Fatigue in Nurses and Medical Doctors in Intensive Care Units

Conditions
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Alarm Fatigue

Intervention / Treatment
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* Other: Reduces number of question items


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: physicians of German intensive care units specialist nurses of German intensive care units respiratory therapists of German intensive care units Exclusion Criteria: - Refusal to participate
Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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No

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| EFA_1st_phase<br>Exploratory factor analysis group. All staff members (physicians, specialist nurses, respiratory therapists) of Charite intensive care units | |
| CFA_2nd_phase<br>Confirmatory factor analysis group. All staff members (physicians, specialist nurses, respiratory therapists) of collaborating intensive care units. | Other: Reduces number of question items<br>* The number of alarm fatigue questions are reduced to about 15 in the CFA_2nd_phase group.<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Rate of alarm fatigue | Develop an online alarm fatigue survey questionnaire to be completed across campuses and hospitals by ICU staff. | 6 months |