The relationship between alarm fatigue with professional quality of life in intensive care nurses

The research was conducted to determine the relationship between alarm fatigue and compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue and burnout, which are indicators of professional quality of life, in nurses working in intensive care. The descriptive and relationship-seeking research was conducted with nurses working in the intensive care units of a university hospital.The sample included 224 nurses working in the intensive care clinics of the hospital. Introductory Information Form, Nurses' Alarm Fatigue Scale and Professional Quality of Life Scale were used as data collection tools. Face-to-face interview technique was used in the application of the research. Data were collected between September 2021 and January 2022. Ethical permission of the research (Decision: 2021/45) was obtained. In the analysis of the data, mean, standard deviation, percentage, one-way ANOVA, t-test analysis for independent groups, Tukey multiple comparison analysis, correlation analysis and multiple linear regression analysis were used. The average alarm fatigue score of the nurses participating in the research was determined as 15.17±5.74. Risk factors of alarm fatigue were determined as gender, age, having children, income perception status, length of time working in the profession, length of time working in intensive care and level of intensive care. Compassion fatigue and burnout were found to significantly predict alarm fatigue. The study found that there was a negative correlation between alarm fatigue and compassion satisfaction, which is an indicator of professional quality of life, but a significant positive correlation between compassion fatigue and burnout. It is thought that conducting studies on this subject with larger and different sample groups will shed light on future research and other aspects of the subject that need to be investigated.