PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - J Brady Scott AU - Laura De Vaux AU - Connie Dills AU - Shawna L Strickland TI - Mechanical Ventilation Alarms and Alarm Fatigue AID - 10.4187/respcare.06878 DP - 2019 Oct 01 TA - Respiratory Care PG - 1308--1313 VI - 64 IP - 10 4099 - http://rc.rcjournal.com/content/64/10/1308.short 4100 - http://rc.rcjournal.com/content/64/10/1308.full AB - Mechanical ventilation alarms and alerts, both audible and visual, provide the clinician with vital information about the patient's physiologic condition and the status of the machine's function. Not all alarms generated by the mechanical ventilator provide actionable information. Over time, clinicians can become desensitized to audible alarms due to alarm fatigue and may potentially ignore an actionable situation that results in patient harm. Alarm fatigue has been recognized by multiple agencies as a major patient-safety issue. To date, mechanical ventilator alarm settings do not have standardized nomenclature. The aim of this review was to examine and report on the literature that pertains to mechanical ventilation alarms and alarm fatigue and to propose recommendations for future research that may lead to safer mechanical ventilation alarm practices.