What good design does: reducing alarm fatigue for an ICU nurse
Imagine you are an ICU nurse. You care deeply about being there for patients in their most critical moments. But sometimes it feels like you are drowning in alarms and reporting instead of caring for people.
Ultimately, patient monitoring is about helping clinicians act at the right moment. Good design plays a crucial role in this, by ensuring that the right signals stand out when they matter most.
This is what designers do. They imagine what it is like working in a high pressure clinical environment, responsible for delivering quality care. They ask: what would this nurse, let’s call him Muhammed, really want? The answer is to focus on what matters most, and truly be there for his patients when they need him.
Designing for impact
This is the impact that design makes. It is not just about the shape, color or look and feel of a product. Designers constantly observe how monitoring is used in real clinical practice and talk to end users to understand their needs, workflows, and challenges. The goal is always the same: supporting clinical teams so they can deliver the best possible care to patients.
In practice, this often means addressing patient safety challenges like alarm fatigue, ensuring alarms help clinicians notice what truly matters instead of adding unnecessary noise.
In the case of Muhammed, that means designing monitoring systems that help clinical teams focus on what matters most. One important aspect of this is tackling alarm fatigue, ensuring alarms support clinical decisions instead of creating constant noise and stress.
• On average there are 350 alarm sounds per patient per day in an ICU(Source: Jones K. (2014). Alarm fatigue a top patient safety hazard.)
• It’s estimated that 80–99% of hospital alarms do not require clinical intervention (Source: Gross, Dahl, & Nielson, 2011)What if monitoring was designed around nurses, so that alarms support decisions instead of adding more stress?A few examples of what this could look like. These design choices help clinicians recognize critical situations faster and act when it matters most:
• Alarm sounds can be redesigned to be calmer and more pleasant to hear, helping reduce stress during long shifts.
• For each alarm, relevant patient data can be available right away on a smartphone or mobile device, so Muhammed can quickly assess whether he needs to rush to the bedside.
• A second pair of eyes in the background can help Muhammed focus and prioritize, so important signals are not lost in the noise.
• The system can adapt to the needs of the nurse, instead of forcing the nurse to adapt to the system, supporting a workflow that keeps attention where it should be.
Design is all about making sure we truly understand end user needs, and then work backwards from them. So our innovations can support clinical teams in delivering the best possible care. By reducing alarm fatigue and improving workflows, nurses like Muhammed can spend less time battling alarms and more time focusing on their patients when it matters most.
About What good design does
In the video series ‘What good design does’, we explore the impact that design makes by working backwards from the needs of patients, healthcare professionals and people at home.
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