Perceptions of Infusion Pump Alarms among Experienced Nurses versus Novice Nurses

Authors

Priyanka Panta, Mississippi University for WomenFollow

Abstract

In nursing, infusion pumps are used daily to provide critical medications, fluids, and nutrition to patients. The alarm signals on these pumps can alert nurses to potential issues with the infusion, but some of these alarms are not clinically significant. In this study, the student researcher determined whether there was a statistically significant difference in the perceptions of infusion pump alarms among experienced and novice nurses. The student researcher hypothesized the novice nurses would have a higher perception of infusion pump alarms. The student researcher had the education department at a rural hospital in the southeastern United States distribute an infusion pump alarm survey to both experienced and novice nurses during mandatory training. The student researcher received 50 total survey responses after 17 were discarded for not meeting criteria. After the data was collected, a t-test was performed resulting in a p value of 0.208 causing the student researcher to fail to reject the null hypothesis showing no statistically significant difference among experienced and novice nurses. In future studies, the student researcher recommends sampling more nurses from a variety of hospitals and ensuring nurses properly fill out the survey. Regarding nursing practice, the student researcher recommends teaching proper pump use to improve staff response to alarms.

Recommended Citation

Panta, Priyanka. "Perceptions of Infusion Pump Alarms among Experienced Nurses versus Novice Nurses." Merge, vol. 5, Iss. 1 2021 .
Available at: https://athenacommons.muw.edu/merge/vol5/iss1/4