A framework for reducing alarm fatigue on pediatric inpatient units.

On my (AK) fi rst day on the patient fl oors as a medical student, I couldn’t help but notice the buzzing, beeping, cacophony of alarms that ostensibly indicated impending danger for just about every patient on the unit. I looked around, waiting for someone (a nurse, a doctor, anyone) to react. Yet thus far in my brief career, I’ve come to learn that most of the alarms I hear do not indicate emergencies, and in fact most do not warrant any clinical intervention at all. As a result, the buzzing and beeping fades into the background now.