Noise Fatigue

I recently read a newspaper article that was headlined Patient deaths linked to beeping alarms and I impulsively gave a fist pump thinking here was one more reason for celebrating the unplugging of my alarm clock! Then I read the rest of the story and found out the alarms they were referring to were not the ones that wake you in the morning, but rather the incessantly beeping machines in hospitals. It seems that a government database lists more than 500 deaths potentially linked to hospital alarms in recent years. And more importantly, the patients aren't the only ones suffering from noise fatigue in these instances. The doctors and nurses sometimes ignore the alarms when there is a real emergency and that can delay treatment and endanger the patient because the doctors and nurses are the ones suffering from noise fatigue! I must agree with the Joint Commission (a hospital accrediting group) calling for hospital leaders to address the problem and train hospital staff in safe alarm management.

This report is a bit scary but I get it because I have been as guilty as the next of sleeping through my alarm or hitting the snooze button multiple times on many a morning. Regardless, the alarm clock in this house is going to remain unplugged, as I continue to fight fatigue, alarm clock noise related fatigue, on a morning by morning basis.