Zhi Li
Sichuan University, China
Title: Delirium assessment in intensive care units: Current practice and perceived barriers. A survey of 256 ICU nursing staff from China
Biography
Biography: Zhi Li
Abstract
Background Delirium is a serious and highly prevalent disorder in the intensive care unit patients, and is associated with an increased mortality and morbidity and prolonged hospital and intensive care unit stay. Despite practice guidelines promoting delirium assessment in intensive care, few data exist regarding current delirium assessment practices among nurses in China. Objective The aim is to investigate the current practices of ICU delirium assessment among ICU nursing staffs and analyze the perceived barriers, then providing reference for the implementation of delirium assessment in the intensive care unit. Methods This cross-sectional study was applied to 280 nursing staff working in six intensive care units of one large size Tertiary comprehensive hospital in Sichuan Province. A survey design was used and a questionnaire designed to collect the data. Results Overall, 256 (91.4%) nurses responded. 94.9% had the experience of caring delirium patients in the ICU work. Preferred methods for assessing delirium included clinical experience (80.5%), delirium assessment tools (14.5%), and psychiatric consultation (5.0%). The top three perceived barriers included difficulties for assessing intubated patients, sedative patients and lack of knowledge to distinguish delirium. Nurses who assessed by clinical experience (F=4.893, P=0.008), who had never received educations(F=12.252, P＜0.001)and who thought the knowledge they had couldn’t meet their clinical needs(F= 17.51,P＜0.001), had higher scores of barriers. Conclusions The current practices of ICU delirium assessment were not satisfied and the barriers mainly included lack of techniques and knowledge.