Nurses knowledge of delirium Literature Review
According to our text, “Professional nurses rely on research findings to inform their practice decisions; they use critical thinking to apply research directly to specific patient care situations” (Houser, 2018), thus making this researched article a much needed knowledge nurses need to know in their practice and to handle patients with delirium. Delirium is a state of confusion that comes on very suddenly and lasts for hours to days (American Delirium Society). It is a syndrome that have the potential to negatively affect hospitalized medical surgical patients over 65 years if not detected and treated early. However delirium remains under recognized and healthcare professionals including nurses do not have the appropriate training to manage this challenge.
This article by Baker, Taggart, Nivens & Tillman, aims at reviewing literature on nurses knowledge of delirium which has been increasing in our aging population, and to identify interventions that will be effective in improving nurses knowledge.The article defined the types of delirium, compared delirium, dementia and depression, discussed predisposing and precipitating factors as well as its purpose. This article highlights the key role nurses play in the detection of delirium and also evaluated nurses knowledge deficit for delirium in different designs and studies. Are nurses unable to differentiate and recognize delirium due to lack of knowledge, risk factors, preventative measures and treatments?. The purpose of this article is to ascertain and assess nurses knowledge of delirium and its risk factors and correlate it to demographic variables such as educational level, years of experience and the level of the nurses practice. Researched questions through a questionaire to volunteered participants who were nurses in every unit in the hospital, yielded the hypotheses that 75% of nurses scored less on the questionaire that assessed nurses insufficient knowledge on delirium and its risk factors with a high correlation between nurses level of education, experience and area of practice, and the knowledge of delirium and its risk factor. Research question and its answers proved that nurses lack both general knowledge and risk factors on delirium as noted by the lower scores from the study, with a statistical significance level equal or less than 0.05.
It was interesting to know under demorgraphics that, out of the 150 potential participants that completed the questionaire, 34 respondents (56.67%) held a BSN degree, 18 (30%) held ADN degree and 6 (10%) held an MSN degree with preparation as either a nurse practitioner or a clinical nurse specialist and 2 (3.33%) held a diploma in nursing, and still the scores were lower. this shows that nursing knowledge on delirium need to be assessed and evaluated with needed intervention that will improve patient care and safety in hospital settings.
One strategy I will use to create a strong literature review for evidence, will be to retrieve the full text and summarize relevant articles to make the content of my literature complete and efficient. I will also make sure I state the purpose of the study, summarize the question being researched, the methods being used, the findings from the research and my conclusion based on the research and it’s results. I will also include the quotes used in the literature, the page numbers, implications of the research question and nursing practice. (Houser, 2018). The thorough review of the literature allow us to review previous articles with research limitations and give future recommendations.
Houser, J. (2018). Nursing Research: Reading, Using, and creating evidence (4th ed.). Sadbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.
American Delirium Society. What is Delirium?. Retrieved from https://americandeliriumsociety.org/what-delirium (Links to an external site.)
Baker, N. D., Taggart, H. M., Nivens, A. & Tillman, P. (2015). Delirium: Why Are Nurses Confused?. Retrieved from https://eds-b-ebscohost-com.chamberlainuniversity.idm.oclc.org/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=03bd8010-3bb8-46b7-bb2f-1a8e1eaee7de%40pdc-v-sessmgr03 (Links to an external site.)
