A Study of Knowledge, Recognition and Practice about Delirium in General Hospital Nurses

The purpose of this study is to determine the levels of delirium-related knowledge, recognition, and practice, and to identify their correlation in nurses working at general hospitals. This study is a descriptive correlation study attempting to provide raw data for the development of a tool to assess groups at high risk for delirium, as well as preventive intervention programs. The sample size of this study is 206 nurses working at medical surgical units, the intensive care unit (ICU) and the emergency room (ER) with primary assessment of delirium-related knowledge, followed by the secondary assessment of delirium-related recognition and practice one day after. Before commencement, the study was able to obtain the approval of the Institutional Review Board. The data analysis is conducted using the PASW statistic 18 program, by frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, Pearson correlation, t-test and ANOVA. The delirium-related knowledge was 69.8 out of 100 points. The cause-related knowledge was shown as the highest point, followed by patient care-related knowledge and symptom-related knowledge in that order. The mean value of delirium-related recognition was 82.26±8.74 out of 100 points, whereas the practice had shown the mean 74.43±12.17 out. There was no statistically significant correlation between delirium-related knowledge and practice, but it was reported that there was a statistically significant correlation between recognition and practice. Since making nurses become more aware of the group at the highest risk for delirium is the most important factor in connection to preventive intervention, it is necessary to develop a tool to assess the group at high risk of delirium for nurses to be more easily aware.