ArticleBMJ open2026
ICU nurses' experiences, practices and support needs in ventilator alarm management: a qualitative study.
Article in BMJ open, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Alarm Management Competence in Clinical Nursing Practice: An Evolutionary Concept Analysis.Journal of nursing management · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesTo explore intensive care unit (ICU) nurses' experiences, practices and support needs in ventilator alarm management.
designA qualitative descriptive study using semi-structured individual interviews and conventional content analysis.
settingA tertiary hospital ICU in Beijing, China.
participantsFifteen ICU nurses with direct experience in caring for mechanically ventilated patients and managing ventilator alarms were recruited through purposive sampling.
resultsAnalysis of the interview data using a more granular line-by-line coding approach generated 113 initial codes, which were organised into 17 code categories, 15 subthemes and 5 main themes. The five themes were (1) from alarm recognition to risk prioritisation, (2) knowledge gaps behind routine alarm responses, (3) multilevel barriers to accurate ventilator alarm management, (4) role boundaries and collaborative alarm management and (5) moving from reactive response to precision alarm management. Nurses prioritised alarms that directly threatened airway patency, ventilation or oxygenation, such as airway obstruction, circuit disconnection and apnoea ventilation. Although participants were generally able to recognise common alarm names and perform initial bedside troubleshooting, they reported challenges in identifying underlying causes, interpreting ventilator parameters and waveforms and managing alarms in complex patient-, procedure-, device- and environment-related situations. Ventilator alarm management was shaped by professional role boundaries, with nurses mainly responsible for patient assessment and nursing-manageable troubleshooting, while ventilator mode, parameter and alarm-limit adjustments were usually escalated to physicians or other senior team members. Participants expressed the need for standardised alarm assessment pathways, clear escalation criteria, layered and scenario-based training and system-level support for sustainable alarm safety.
conclusionsVentilator alarm management among ICU nurses is a dynamic clinical process involving alarm recognition, risk prioritisation, interpretation, bedside troubleshooting and interprofessional escalation. Supporting nurses to move from reactive alarm response toward more precise and systematic alarm management requires both individual competence development and organisational support, including structured pathways, targeted training and multidisciplinary alarm governance.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.