Background: Alarms in the critical areas are an important component of most of the machines as they alert nurses\non the change in the patients� condition. Most patients in the critical care units cannot speak for themselves hence\ncannot pinpoint when their condition changes. It is therefore important to assess the nurses� interventions when\nmanaging clinical alarms. The purpose of this study was to assess interventions employed by nurses in the management\nof clinical alarms in the care of patients in the Critical Care Unit (CCU), Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH).\nMethods: A descriptive cross sectional study was carried out in the month of June 2014 where 87 nurses were recruited\nas study respondents. KNH/ University of Nairobi (UoN) Ethics and Research committee approved the research. A structured\nself administered questionnaire was used to collect data. The questionnaire contained some questions in a Likert\nscale in relation to the actions the nurses would take in the management of clinical alarms and some on whether\npolicies on alarm management existed in the hospital, if they filled alarm checklists and how often and the types\nof alarms they would respond to first.\nResults: The respondents� responses were scored and from the results it was clear that there were some gaps in\nthe management of clinical alarms. Majority of the nurses reported that they respond to alarms of all durations\nand do not fill alarm checklists as neither alarm checklists nor protocols are provided. From the findings there\nwas a statistically significant association (p = 0.06) between age and whether the respondents assessed the cause\nof the alarm beep.\nDiscussion: Respondents in this study respond to alarms of all durations in contrast to other studies where the\nfindings indicate that nurses respond to alarms for different reasons, not just that the alarm sounds. Majority of\nthe respondents scored averagely on the questions on whether they carry out most of the interventions or\nactions. This is inline with previous studies which have shown that healthcare personnel respond to alarms\ndepending on the patient�s physiological status.\nConclusions: Nurses in the unit carry out the standard nursing interventions on clinical alarms and, respond to\nalarms of all durations and do not fill alarm checklists. Alarm protocols should therefore be developed in the\nhospital, the nurses should be trained on management of clinical alarms and more nurses employed
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