Effectiveness of the Nursing Intervention for Preventing Delirium in Critically-Ill Patients

Abstract

Introduction: Delirium is a mental disorder that frequently affects critically-ill patients and causes increased days of hospitalization. It can be prevented through timely nursing interventions; however, such are applied in a restricted way in intensive care units in Peru.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of nursing intervention in the prevention of delirium in critically-ill patients.

Methods: A quasiexperimental study was conducted with two groups in the intensive care unit of Hospital María Auxiliadora, of Lima, Peru, in 2021. The population was 67 patients, 33 in the experimental group and 34 in the control group, who met the inclusion criteria. Two were excluded from the first group due to over-added complications; 31 remained. The intervention was organized in four sections. The following instruments were applied: Confusion assessment method for diagnosing delirium in ICU patients (CAM-ICU) and a checklist, valid and reliable. To determine effectiveness, pre- and post-nursing intervention assessment was performed. The data were processed with the software IBM SPSS (version 23). Descriptive statistics and Pearson's chi-square method were used for the analysis.

Results: In the experimental group, 3.20 % of the patients presented delirium after the intervention and 23.50 % did so in the control group. Bivariate analysis with chi-squared statistical test evidenced p = 0.02, a significant result.

Conclusions: The nursing intervention was effective, as it mostly prevented delirium in critically-ill patients.