Date of Award
2024
Document Type
Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
Degree Name
Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
Department
Nursing
Committee Chair
Tracy Lakin
Committee Member
Linnea Pepper
Committee Member
Darlene Showalter
Committee Member
Shikha Modi
Subject(s)
Older people--Hospital care, Delirium--Prevention, Intensive care units
Abstract
Delirium is one of the most common adverse outcomes of hospitalization in adults of age 65. It has been linked with extended length of stay, higher death rates, increased morbidity, and chronic cognitive impairment. Delirium is often a missed diagnosis, and the treatment complexity is underappreciated. The Surgical Trauma Intensive Care Unit (STICU) at a large Level I Trauma Center saw a delirium prevalence of greater than 60% over 12 months in 2022. This project aims to implement a delirium prevention power plan to decrease the incidence of delirium by 20% over three months in adults over 65 admitted to the STICU. The primary team was trained to implement the evidence-based power plan developed by the DNP student on all adults meeting inclusion criteria. PDSA cycles were performed in two-week intervals to assess compliance using the delirium prevention power plan and its variables. Data was collected throughout the project and inferential statistics were employed to find the project's efficacy. The incidence of delirium significantly decreased. The Z-score of 3.24 was calculated, which corresponds to a p-value of 0.0012. Delirium incidence decreased by 72% during the 12 weeks project. This quality improvement project provides pre and post intervention evidence that a multicomponent delirium prevention protocol can decrease the incidence of delirium.
Recommended Citation
Valenzuela, Tracy Porter, "Decreasing the incidence of delirium in the hospitalized trauma intensive care patient over age 65" (2024). Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP). 129.
https://louis.uah.edu/uah-dnp/129