Critical Care Nursing Commons^™

Delirium Reduction Strategies For The Critically Ill, June Chaves, Sam Canonico, Will Cheney, Tammy Corey, Gil Fraser, Alex Kowalewski, Jen Low, Cardiac Intensive Care Unit, Haley Pelletier, Cathy Palleschi, Stephen Tyzik, Suneela Nayak, Ruth Hanselman

Maine Medical Center

Delirium, an acute and fluctuating disturbance of consciousness and cognition, is a common manifestation of acute brain dysfunction in critically ill patients. Patients with delirium have longer hospital stays and a lower 6-month survival rate than do patients without delirium. Preliminary research suggests that delirium may be associated with cognitive impairment that persists months to years after discharge.

In a large acute care hospital, the cardiac intensive care staff became interested in mitigating their unit’s high delirium rate of ventilated patients. At baseline, many members of the healthcare team did not believe that delirium could be prevented and the predominant …

Delirium: A Cnl-Led Protocol To Clear Up The Confusion, Shanda N. Whittle

Master's Projects and Capstones

Project objectives: Delirium is a form of organ failure defined as an acute change in cognition, evidenced by altered consciousness and impaired attention that fluctuates over time, and is associated with increased morbidity, mortality, and healthcare services utilization. In the hospital where this evidence-based practice project took place, there was no formal protocol or guideline for assessing or managing delirium. Therefore, this project focused on improving the practice of identifying patients at risk for developing delirium with the AWOL tool and treating patients with signs and symptoms of delirium found using the Short-CAM assessment. Population and setting: This project took …

Incidence Rate Of Delirium After Cardiac Surgery And Feasibility Of A Delirium Prediction Rule, Kelly Bohl

DNP Projects

Delirium is an acute, temporary cognitive disorder that is characterized by a change in mental status, altered level of judgement, and changes in perception and behavior. Elderly patients who undergo open cardiac surgery are particularly at risk for developing delirium postoperatively. Although it is a temporary disorder, there are many consequences associated with delirium after cardiac surgery, including a longer length of stay in the hospital, long term functional decline, a greater use of health care resources and an increase in mortality risk. The purpose of this project was to identify the one-year incidence of postoperative delirium after cardiac surgery …