Assessment of Attitude and Competence towards Clinical Alarm Management among Intensive Care Units Nurses in Palestine: A Cross-sectional Quantitative Study رسالة ماجستير

Abstract

Introduction: Alarm fatigue is characterized by sensory overload and desensitization among ICU nurses due to presence of excessive alarm signals, which can affect the quality of provided care. The current study aimed to investigate levels of attitude and competence among intensive care unit (ICU) nurse towards alarm management in ICU among Palestinian nurses, as well as the most common factors affecting them and their intercorrelation. Methods: The study adopted a descriptive, cross-sectional, quantitative design on a convenient sample of 243 ICU nurses working at 10 governmental and private hospitals in four cities in West Bank – Palestine, and used a three-part, self-administered questionnaire to assess the attitude and competence levels using Likert-scale, close-ended questions. Data were collected with full commitment to ethical criteria, and were analyzed using SPSS software. Results: Nurses had a mean age of 28.7 years old, with 64.6% males, 73.3% holding bachelor’s degree, and a mean experience of 6.4 years in nursing and 3.9 years in ICU settings. The overall attitude (mean = 68.25%) and competence (mean = 76.55%) were moderate, with significantly higher attitude among nurses not living in camps (p-value = 0.016), and with lower educational degree (p-value = 0.014), while higher competence levels were among younger (p-value = 0.002), less experience nurses (p-value = 0.004), living in urban areas (p-value < 0.001), working in private settings (p-value = 0.025) and in adult and neurosurgery ICU types (p-value = 0.007). Significant correlations were found between all domains and overall scores of attitude and competence scales (p-value < 0.05). Conclusion: The current study found moderate levels of attitude and competence among Palestinian ICU nurses towards alarm management, reflecting low-to-moderate alarm fatigue levels. Several demographic factors were related to alarm management, with differences compared to previous studies. Nurses are encouraged to participate in continuous education and conduct future, longitudinal studies