Delirium

Week 4 Blog Post: Delirium (Janell Nunn)

Briefly summarize your findings. Do you agree with the article? Why or why not? What are the next steps needed? Share your “finds” from your own blog for this week.

 

This was a very short section of a larger article. It agreed with the article and videos we all read. Stating that the CAM ICU Delirium tool is extremely helpful in catching more cases of delirium. The article discussed adding this and other tools to help prevent long term effects of delirium and was concerned with having these tools added to hospital protocols, especially given the success of the trials (done in four stages at large hospitals in ICUs only).

I agree with the article, mostly due to the evidence presented in the other article we read and the videos. The next steps needed for this article are: getting the CAM ICU added into hospital protocols; putting interventions in place for those identified to have delirium based on these new protocols.

My “Finds” from the reading/videos: This is an issue of which I was entirely unaware. The testimony the patient gave on video was astounding and the quote he gave from his psychiatrist stating that it was as real to him as any Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) sufferer from the military or police really made the issue come alive. This is what health care protocol is doing to survivors! It is made clear by the information given, that changes need to be made. Research for changes began back in the 1990s and is finally on its way into practice and needs to be taken seriously and swiftly added into daily best practice.

 

References:

Landro, L. (2011). Informed patient: changing sedation status quo in the ICU.  Health Blog, Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2011/02/15/changing-the-sedation-status-quo-in-the-icu/

Nulles, S. (2008).  Improving goal-directed sedation practices and recognition of delirium in the MICU. Critical Care Nurse, 28(2), 11.