A Study of Recognize and Practice about Delirium in the General Hospital Nurses

The purpose of this study was to determine recognition and corresponding practices of nurses regarding delirium; also, to determine the correlation between these two factors among nurses in a general hospital. This descriptive correlational study was conducted to provide basic data for the development of a tool that can assesses high-risk delirium groups. The subjects of the study were 206 bedside nurses who were working at medical surgical units, intensive care units, and emergency rooms in a general hospital. The approval of the Institutional Review Board was obtained before carrying out the study. The data was statistically analyzed through frequency, percentage, average, standard deviation, Pearson's correlation, t-test, and ANOVA using PASW Statistic 18. The correlation between recognition and corresponding practices of nurses was statistically significant (p<.001). A higher level of recognition resulted in higher level of practices among the nurses. The nurses' ability to identify high-risk delirium groups was considered as the most important preventive factor; therefore, it is necessary to develop a tool for nurses to use easily in order to identify high risk delirium group.