How can nurses use non pharmacological interventions to help prevent delirium for patients in a hospital setting?
Disciplines
Nursing
Abstract (300 words maximum)
Background: Delirium refers to a change in a person's mental abilities. This state causes confusion, disorientation, and inability to think appropriately. This made me think back to a lecture that I had in mental health nursing, about how delirium can be common in the hospital setting but can be overlooked. If not treated, it can lead to increased morbidity, worsening of dementia, and increased costs. Delirium is hard to recognize and diagnose, especially in older adults resulting in many of these patients going undiagnosed. A major cause for this issue is the lack of awareness and complacency that healthcare workers have against the clinical presentation of these patients. Methods: A literature review was conducted using the Kennesaw State University database. Inclusion criteria included articles written about critical care/ acute patients with delirium, drug/alcohol withdrawal patients ( common for them to experience delirium). Articles that were excluded from the review included topics about pediatrics, non-hospital setting, and pharmacological interventions. Conclusion: The most effective intervention for nurses to implement to prevent delirium, is the usage of screening tools and increased education for staff members. The usage of screening tools help to identify the early stages of delirium. Also, educational courses regarding delirium prevention/identification , allowed for staff to be more confident in their ability to treat these patients and helped to fill learning gaps to better patient care. The information collected in this review can be useful because it offers a way to help identify if/ how serious a patient's delirious state is, and to determine if further intervention is needed before the patient deteriorates. Effectiveness can be assessed by looking at the amount of patients that have a positive screen for delirium- supporting the idea that delirium is overlooked or by interviewing nurses to determine their thoughts behind its effectiveness.
Academic department under which the project should be listed
Nursing
Primary Investigator (PI) Name
Felicia Lanier
How can nurses use non pharmacological interventions to help prevent delirium for patients in a hospital setting?
Background: Delirium refers to a change in a person's mental abilities. This state causes confusion, disorientation, and inability to think appropriately. This made me think back to a lecture that I had in mental health nursing, about how delirium can be common in the hospital setting but can be overlooked. If not treated, it can lead to increased morbidity, worsening of dementia, and increased costs. Delirium is hard to recognize and diagnose, especially in older adults resulting in many of these patients going undiagnosed. A major cause for this issue is the lack of awareness and complacency that healthcare workers have against the clinical presentation of these patients. Methods: A literature review was conducted using the Kennesaw State University database. Inclusion criteria included articles written about critical care/ acute patients with delirium, drug/alcohol withdrawal patients ( common for them to experience delirium). Articles that were excluded from the review included topics about pediatrics, non-hospital setting, and pharmacological interventions. Conclusion: The most effective intervention for nurses to implement to prevent delirium, is the usage of screening tools and increased education for staff members. The usage of screening tools help to identify the early stages of delirium. Also, educational courses regarding delirium prevention/identification , allowed for staff to be more confident in their ability to treat these patients and helped to fill learning gaps to better patient care. The information collected in this review can be useful because it offers a way to help identify if/ how serious a patient's delirious state is, and to determine if further intervention is needed before the patient deteriorates. Effectiveness can be assessed by looking at the amount of patients that have a positive screen for delirium- supporting the idea that delirium is overlooked or by interviewing nurses to determine their thoughts behind its effectiveness.