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  • DemDel, a nursing-led practice-based delirium intervention, improves certain outcomes for older cognitively impaired inpatients

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Care of the older person
Quantitative study - other
DemDel, a nursing-led practice-based delirium intervention, improves certain outcomes for older cognitively impaired inpatients
  1. Anne P F Wand1,
  2. Andrew Teodorczuk2
  1. 1School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia;
  2. 2Griffith University School of Medicine, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
  1. Correspondence to: Dr Anne P.F Wand, School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales 2037, Australia; a.wand{at}unsw.edu.au

https://doi.org/10.1136/eb-2016-102386

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    Commentary on: Hasemann W, Tolson D, Godwin JA, et al. A before and after study of a nurse led comprehensive delirium management programme (DemDel) for older acute care inpatients with cognitive impairment. Int J Nurs Stud 2016;53:27–38.OpenUrl

    Implications for practice and research

    • Delirium prevention and management require nurse-led identification of those at risk, cognitive screening and management of triggers and risk factors.

    • Educational approaches can improve delirium practice, but more studies are needed to explore the impact of nursing education on patient outcomes.

    Context

    Older people with cognitive impairment are at particular risk of developing delirium when unwell; but screening is not routine and delirium is under recognised, resulting in adverse outcomes. Delirium is preventable in a third of cases; therefore, spotting, treating and stopping delirium are priorities. Nurses are well placed to identify risk factors and signs of delirium and communicate them to the clinical team. …

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    Footnotes

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed.