Abstract
This article addresses the need of including acoustical perspectives in the debate on alarm fatigue within the healthcare domain. We show how conceptualisations and proposed solutions to alarm fatigue are unequally distributed across what could be called the ‘alarm chain’: a generic model of the core structural elements and dynamic relations that constitute any alarm scenario. A focal point in the alarm chain – the ‘alarm mediation cleft’ – seems to divide the alarm fatigue literature from the segment of the alarm literature that deals with auditory alarm design. The current healthcare discourse on alarm fatigue is centred around the ‘premediated alarm phase’, which has the consequence of an unfortunate dichotomous approach to the functionality of sound. We address some shortcomings of this approach and outline some methodological implications and potentials of searching for signs of alarm fatigue in the ‘post-mediated alarm phase’.
DOI
10.7146/se.v6i1.24915
Publication Date
2016-11-30
Publication Title
Sound Effects
Volume
6
Issue
1
ISSN
1904-500X
Organisational Unit
School of Psychology
First Page
88
Last Page
104
Recommended Citation
Edworthy, J., Kristensen, M., & Ozcan, E. (2016) 'Alarm fatigue in the ward', Sound Effects, 6(1), pp. 88-104. Available at: https://doi.org/10.7146/se.v6i1.24915
