Abstract

Nurses play a crucial role in implementing care designed to reduce delirium's duration and severity. Unmanaged delirium in the older adult patient population can result in prolonged hospitalization, profound decline in health status, and possible short or long-term institutionalization. A nurse-driven delirium management protocol was piloted on an orthopedic surgical unit over a period of four weeks. The goal was to detect delirium early in the postoperative period for early management and thus, the patient would be free of delirium symptoms at discharge.

All patients age 65 years old and over were assessed for delirium every shift and a delirium nursing care plan was implemented on those identified as positive for delirium. A total of 81 patients were assessed for delirium with nine percent (9%, n=8) testing positive at some point during their hospitalization. Delirium nursing care plans were implemented on all these patients and none of these patients exhibited delirium symptoms at discharge. The nurses' ability to recognize delirium using a standardized assessment tool can lead to early management and reduce delirium's severity and duration.

Author Details

Elaine Duterte Delvo-Favre, DNP, MSN, RN, RN-BC, NEA-BC

Sigma Membership

Non-member

Type

DNP Capstone Project

Format Type

Text-based Document

Study Design/Type

Clinical Practice Guideline(s)

Research Approach

Translational Research/Evidence-based Practice

Keywords:

Delirium, Nursing Care, Aging, Older Adults

Advisor

Linda Matheson

Second Advisor

Theresa Pape

Third Advisor

Wanda Whittet

Degree

DNP

Degree Grantor

Capella University

Degree Year

2016

Rights Holder

All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.

All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.

All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.

Review Type

None: Degree-based Submission

Acquisition

Self-submission

Date of Issue

2016-10-20

Full Text of Presentation

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