Educational Intervention to Improve Delirium Recognition by Nurses

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 270-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheri S. Blevins ◽  
Regina DeGennaro

Background Delirium poses increased morbidity and mortality risks for hospitalized patients. Underrecognition by health care providers contributes to poor outcomes for patients. Little has been published about methods used to teach health care providers how to screen for delirium using the Confusion Assessment Method for the Intensive Care Unit (CAM-ICU). Objective To evaluate the effectiveness of a multimodal educational intervention for nurses in the medical intensive care unit to improve their knowledge and skills regarding delirium and delirium recognition. Methods An educational intervention was done in the medical intensive care unit of an academic medical center. Effectiveness was evaluated via a quasi-experimental design and using preintervention and postintervention assessments. Procedural correctness of performing the CAM-ICU delirium screening also was measured. Results Nurses participated in 1 small-group session (n = 34). Fifteen sessions were conducted from June to September 2016, and assessments were completed before and after the intervention. The sample consisted of predominantly nurses with a bachelor’s degree (56%) who had 1 to 5 years’ experience (59%). Mean scores overall and on the knowledge subscale differed significantly (P < .001) from before to after the intervention. No correlation was found between demographic groups and score differences. Seventy-nine percent of participants used the tool correctly after the intervention. Conclusions The educational intervention provided for these nurses further validated published reports of the benefits of an educational program about delirium. The content of the educational intervention should be targeted for the setting, the risk factors for the patient population in question, and the specific delirium screening tool used.

2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-125
Author(s):  
Antoinette B. Coe ◽  
Rebecca E. Bookstaver ◽  
Andrew C. Fritschle ◽  
Michael T. Kenes ◽  
Pamela MacTavish ◽  
...  

Background: Complex medication regimen changes burden intensive care unit (ICU) survivors and their caregivers during the transition to home. Intensive care unit recovery clinics are a prime setting for pharmacists to address patients’ and their caregivers’ medication-related needs. The purpose of this study was to describe ICU recovery clinic pharmacists’ activities, roles, and perceived barriers and facilitators to practicing in ICU recovery clinics across different institutions. Methods: An expert panel of ICU recovery clinic pharmacists completed a 15-item survey. Survey items addressed the pharmacists’ years in practice, education and training, activities performed, their perceptions of facilitators and barriers to practicing in an ICU recovery clinic setting, and general ICU recovery clinic characteristics. Descriptive statistics were used. Results: Nine ICU recovery clinic pharmacists participated. The average number of years in practice was 16.5 years (SD = 13.5, range = 2-38). All pharmacists practiced in an interprofessional ICU recovery clinic affiliated with an academic medical center. Seven (78%) pharmacists always performed medication reconciliation and a comprehensive medication review in each patient visit. Need for medication education was the most prevalent item found in patient comprehensive medication reviews. The main facilitators for pharmacists’ successful participation in an ICU recovery clinic were incorporation into clinic workflow, support from other health care providers, and adequate space to see patients. The ICU recovery clinic pharmacists perceived the top barriers to be lack of dedicated time and inadequate billing for services. Conclusions: The ICU recovery clinic pharmacists address ICU survivors’ medication needs by providing direct patient care in the clinic. Strategies to mitigate pharmacists’ barriers to practicing in ICU recovery clinics, such as lack of dedicated time and adequate billing for pharmacist services, warrant a multifaceted solution, potentially including advocacy and policy work by national pharmacy professional organizations.


2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (12) ◽  
pp. 1049-1056 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gina M. Piscitello ◽  
William M. Parham ◽  
Michael T. Huber ◽  
Mark Siegler ◽  
William F. Parker

Purpose: Family meetings in the medical intensive care unit can improve outcomes. Little is known about when meetings occur in practice. We aimed to determine the time from admission to family meetings in the medical intensive care unit and assess the relationship of meetings with mortality. Methods: We performed a prospective cohort study of critically ill adult patients admitted to the medical intensive care unit at an urban academic medical center. Using manual chart review, the primary outcome was any attempt at holding a family meeting within 72 hours of admission. Competing risk models estimated the time from admission to family meeting and to patient death or discharge. Results: Of the 131 patients who met inclusion criteria in the 12-month study period, the median time from admission to family meeting was 4 days. Fewer than half of patients had a documented family meeting within 72 hours of admission (n = 60/131, 46%), with substantial interphysician variability in meeting rates ranging from 28% to 63%. Patients with family meetings within 72 hours were 30 times more likely to die within 72 hours (32% vs 1%, P < .001). Of the 55 patients who died in the intensive care unit, 27 (49%) had their first family meeting within 1 day of death. Conclusions: Family meetings occur considerably later than 72 hours and are often held in close proximity to a patient’s death. This suggests for some physicians, family meetings may primarily be used to negotiate withdrawal of life support rather than to support the patient and family.


2020 ◽  
Vol 163 (4) ◽  
pp. 750-754
Author(s):  
Diana Shao ◽  
Jeffrey Straub ◽  
Laura Matrka

Objective To examine the effect of including obesity with parameters of the I-TRACH scale in predicting the need for prolonged mechanical ventilation. Study Design A retrospective cohort study. Setting Tertiary care academic medical center. Subjects and Methods Consecutive patients were identified retrospectively over a 45-month period based on need for mechanical ventilation in the medical intensive care unit. Chart review was performed to collect demographic information as well as clinical data, including duration of mechanical ventilation, body mass index (BMI), and I-TRACH parameters (heart rate >110, serum urea nitrogen >25, serum pH <7.25, serum creatinine >2, serum bicarbonate <20). Statistical analysis was performed to identify any predictors of prolonged mechanical ventilation, defined as ≥14 days and as ≥10 days. Results In total, 455 patients were identified, with an average duration of mechanical ventilation of 10.4 days (range, 0-248 days). On univariate and multivariate regression analysis, only BMI >30 reached statistical significance with respect to prolonged mechanical ventilation ( P < .05). The I-TRACH parameters—either alone or in combination—were not significantly predictive. Conclusion This study challenges previous findings regarding the I-TRACH scale and the relation of its parameters to prolonged mechanical ventilation. Furthermore, BMI >30 alone was predictive of prolonged intubation. Inclusion of BMI in predictive models could assist current decision making in determining the likelihood of prolonged mechanical ventilation in medical intensive care unit patients going forward, and obesity should be considered a predictor of prolonged mechanical ventilation.


1994 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 289-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy E. Page ◽  
Nancy M. Boeing

Much controversy has arisen in the last few decades regarding parental and family visitation in the intensive care setting. The greatest needs of parents while their child is in an intensive care unit include: to be near their child, to receive honest information, and to believe their child is receiving the best care possible. The barriers that exist to the implementation of open visitation mostly are staff attitudes and misconceptions of parental needs. Open visitation has been found in some studies to make the health-care providers’ job easier, decrease parental anxiety, and increase a child’s cooperativeness with procedures. To provide family-centered care in the pediatric intensive care unit, the family must be involved in their child’s care from the day of admission. As health-care providers, the goal is to empower the family to be able to advocate and care for their child throughout and beyond the life crisis of a pediatric intensive care unit admission


1994 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 172-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor Gordan ◽  
Roger K. Pitman ◽  
Thérese A. Stukel ◽  
Daniel Teres ◽  
Edward Gillie

We evaluated early acute organ-system failure (AOSF) as a predictor of mortality in medical intensive care unit (MICU) patients. Prospective data were obtained on 825 men admitted to a Veterans Administraion (VA) Medical Center MICU. Clinical criteria were used to diagnose the presence of 7 types of AOSF. Of the 2,364 AOSFs detected, 1,847 (78%) were “early” (i.e., detected within the first 48 hours of MICU stay). A random sample of 550 patients was selected for derivation of a prediction rule for MICU mortality based on age and number of early AOSFs. For each additional early AOSF, the adjusted odds of mortality increased by 3.3 (95% confidence interval: 2.7, 4.0; p < 0.0001). When applied to the cross-validation sample of 275 patients, this rule yielded a sensitivity of 77%, a specificity of 86%, and an overall correct classification rate of 82%. These results suggest that a simple rule based on number of AOSFs detected in the early portion of a patient's MICU stay may be a useful predictor of mortality.


2000 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 13-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane Holditch-Davis ◽  
Margaret Shandor Miles

The purpose of this article is to let mothers tell the stories of their neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) experiences and to determine how well these experiences fit the Preterm Parental Distress Model. Interviews were conducted with 31 mothers when their infants were six months of age corrected for prematurity and were analyzed using the conceptual model as a framework. The analysis verified the presence in the data of the six major sources of stress indicated in the Preterm Parental Distress Model: (1) pre-existing and concurrent personal and family factors, (2) prenatal and perinatal experiences, (3) infant illness, treatments, and appearance in the NICU, (4) concerns about the infant’s outcomes, (5) loss of the parental role, and (6) health care providers. The study indicates that health care providers, and especially nurses, can have a major role in reducing parental distress by maintaining ongoing communication with parents and providing competent care for their infants.


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