Investigation of the awareness about delirium and delirium management of intensive care nurses

Delirium is a syndrome with an acute onset, fluctuating course. It is known that it can occur as a result of many risk factors. These factors are abundant in intensive-care conditions. This study was conducted to examine intensive care nurses' awareness of delirium and delirium management, as it is seen especially in intensive care patients. It was carried out in a training and research hospital in İstanbul. Proper survey questions were prepared as a study tool. 125 intensive care nurses were participating in the study, which of 20,8% stated that they received educationon delirium, and 9,1% stated that they researched delirium. Besides, 56,9% of the nurses stated that they felt confident about delirium. The nurses participating in the study had a good degree of knowing the risk factors of delirium. However, the lowest participation was in delirium risk factors related to cardiac conditions. Also, 99,2% of the intensive care nurses considered delirium as a significant case that would affect the treatment process. Moreover, 96,8% of them thought that the nurses were better able to do delirium management because they observed the patient more. 48,8% of nurses stated to have no problem regarding delirium management. Despite this, participation in delirium management problems was high. The nurses stated that they mostly (90,2%) had problems with the patients' pulling their medical equipment. When asked which of the nursing attempts towards the delirium patient participated in, the attendance of the nurses was at a good level. In conclusion, the knowledge levels about delirium of the intensive care nurses involved in our study were not bad. However, it was concluded that to gain awareness and management skills regarding delirium, they need to do more research and education. Keywords: Nurse,Intensive Care, Nurse.