Disciplines
Critical Care Nursing
Abstract (300 words maximum)
Background: Delirium is defined as an acute condition consisting of confusion, altered mental status, and disorganized thought processes. Patients who develop delirium have higher mortality rates, increased lengths of stay in the hospital, worse clinical outcomes, and place a higher burden on hospital staff. Affecting up to fifty percent of cardiac surgery patients, delirium is recognized as a major post-operative complication highlighting the importance of early detection. The Confusion Assessment Method for the ICU (CAM-ICU) is a widely accepted screening tool used to detect delirium in the ICU setting. Despite being clinically validated, many nurses lack adequate training on how to use this assessment tool. Furthermore, nurses may not prioritize delirium assessment out of the vast and complex patient care tasks in the intensive care setting. Nurses who receive additional training in delirium and accurate use of CAM-ICU can ensure that the appropriate nursing interventions are implemented to delirium patients. Objective: This quality improvement project aims to determine if augmenting education on the administration of the delirium assessment tool can improve nurses’ confidence in their screening proficiency in the clinical setting. Nurses working on a 12-bed cardiovascular intensive care unit of a hospital located in a suburb of Atlanta will watch four educational videos, review the CAM-ICU Complete Training Manual, and answer questions on five case studies. Methods: Using pre- and post- education surveys, nurses would rate their level of confidence using the CAM-ICU tool to gauge if the education delivered was effective at increasing their self-reported competency level.
Academic department under which the project should be listed
WCHHS - Nursing
Primary Investigator (PI) Name
Kristi Brannen
Included in
Post-operative Delirium: Can Retraining on the CAM-ICU Tool Increase Nurses’ Confidence in Patient Assessment?
Background: Delirium is defined as an acute condition consisting of confusion, altered mental status, and disorganized thought processes. Patients who develop delirium have higher mortality rates, increased lengths of stay in the hospital, worse clinical outcomes, and place a higher burden on hospital staff. Affecting up to fifty percent of cardiac surgery patients, delirium is recognized as a major post-operative complication highlighting the importance of early detection. The Confusion Assessment Method for the ICU (CAM-ICU) is a widely accepted screening tool used to detect delirium in the ICU setting. Despite being clinically validated, many nurses lack adequate training on how to use this assessment tool. Furthermore, nurses may not prioritize delirium assessment out of the vast and complex patient care tasks in the intensive care setting. Nurses who receive additional training in delirium and accurate use of CAM-ICU can ensure that the appropriate nursing interventions are implemented to delirium patients. Objective: This quality improvement project aims to determine if augmenting education on the administration of the delirium assessment tool can improve nurses’ confidence in their screening proficiency in the clinical setting. Nurses working on a 12-bed cardiovascular intensive care unit of a hospital located in a suburb of Atlanta will watch four educational videos, review the CAM-ICU Complete Training Manual, and answer questions on five case studies. Methods: Using pre- and post- education surveys, nurses would rate their level of confidence using the CAM-ICU tool to gauge if the education delivered was effective at increasing their self-reported competency level.