Education | |
Conduct small group delirium education sessions for nurses; | |
Provide 1:1 education at the bedside about delirium – its features and risk factors, and prevention and management strategies; | |
Educate nurses in the correct administration and interpretation of the short Confusion Assessment Method (CAM), [18, 19] to assess patients for delirium; | |
Educate nurses regarding the correct recording of a completed CAM assessment in the hospital’s electronic medical records system; | |
Provide education regarding appropriate interventions (including referral to medical staff) to manage patients with delirium; | |
Role model best practice care approaches to nurses e.g. how to re-orient a patient who appears confused, how to communicate with a patient with CI, how to calm a distressed patient, how to engage patients in meaningful activity and how to assess pain; | |
Prompt discussion of delirium as a vital sign at hand-over; | |
Promote staff awareness of Delirium checklists (e.g. PITCHED – see below) [22]; | |
Assist staff in identifying modifiable triggers to behavioral symptoms in patients with CI; | |
Support | |
Assist nurses to provide direct patient care for patients with CI and demonstrate useful management strategies; | |
Assist nurses develop appropriate care plans for patients with CI; | |
Assist nurses contact patient’s families/ relatives to gather important information regarding the patient’s care preferences in order to provide person-centered care; | |
Assist CogChamps collect data for evaluation purposes (e.g. mini-audits of CAM use were conducted on two wards prior to and following the implementation of Action plans to assess whether any change had occurred); | |
Assist the CogChamps to access evidence-based resources to support patient care e.g. contacting hospital medical illustration unit to develop lanyards for the PITCHED tool [22]; |