Delirium Education Program for Critical Care Nurses: A Mixed Methods Study

Approximately 10-30% of hospital admissions develop delirium where nearly 30-40% of the delirium cases are preventable. Non-detection rates by acute care healthcare workers were reported at 72-75%. Hence, it is crucial for hospitals to develop delirium education programs focused on early recognition and prevention. Thus, the purpose of this mixed method study was to develop and evaluate the effect of a delirium education program (DEP) on improving critical care nurses’ knowledge and self-confidence in identifying delirium and the associated risk factors. In the quantitative strand (Phase I) of the study, both the intervention and control groups completed the online pre-tests and posttests consisting of demographic survey, Nurses’Knowledge of Delirium (NKD), and Confidence Scale (C-Scale). The intervention group attended the DEP that included an online education module followed by one-on-one case study/vignettes with role playing. Data analysis of Phase I informed the decisions regarding the sampling for the qualitative strand (Phase II). The quantitative data were analyzed utilizing a mixed model Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) to test whether there were significant effects of the between group subject factor (group membership: intervention vs control), within group subject Time factor (pre-intervention vs post-intervention scores), and the Group by Time interaction. For Phase II, audio-taped phone interviews were conducted to gain a deeper understanding of the lived experiences of the nurses related to DEP. Dataset of the qualitative strand was then embedded into the quantitative dataset to come up with the final results of the study