Background <p>The increasing number of alarms from clinical monitoring systems adds to nurses’ workload. Effective alarm management relies on nurses’ knowledge and behavioral intentions, which directly affect patient safety and care quality. Popular opinion leader (POL) educational program is crucial in leveraging their influence to improve nurses’ alarm management skills.</p> Aim <p>This study was carried out to evaluate the effects of a POL educational program on nurses’ theoretical knowledge of alarm management, their behavioral intentions regarding alarm management, and their levels of alarm fatigue.</p> Methods <p>A quasi-experimental design was employed, involving 85 nurses serving as alarm management liaisons in nursing units. Over the course of one month, a multidisciplinary team implemented an intervention comprising POL-focused training, knowledge dissemination, and bidirectional feedback with iterative improvement. Assessments were carried out at three time points, pre-intervention (T0), post-POL-focused training (T1), and post-intervention (T2), using the Alarm Management Knowledge Test Questionnaire, Clinical Alarm Management Behavioral Intention Questionnaire Among Critical Care Nurses, and Alarm Fatigue Scale. Categorical data were reported as frequencies and percentages, and repeated measures Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to assess differences.</p> Results <p>A total of 85 nurses serving as alarm management liaisons completed the study, most of whom had received prior alarm management training. The POL educational program significantly improved alarm management knowledge (<i>F</i> = 95.26, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.001) and behavioral intentions scores (<i>F</i> = 230.25, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.001), with these positive effects persisting after the intervention. Alarm fatigue levels decreased at T1 but rebounded at T2 (<i>F</i> = 3.83, <i>p</i> = 0.039).</p> Conclusion <p>This study provides the first empirical evidence supporting the effectiveness of a POL educational program in the context of alarm management. The intervention significantly enhanced nurses’ alarm management knowledge and behavioral intentions, although alarm fatigue outcomes were variable. Our findings provide important guidance for future intervention plans. By targeting influential nurses, such programs can transform individual knowledge into collective team competence, creating a diffusion effect and providing a replicable strategy to address fragmented knowledge and weak behavioral intentions in alarm management.</p> Clinical trial number <p>Not applicable.</p>