Effectiveness of an Educational Intervention to Increase ICU Nurses' Delirium Knowledge and Documentation of the CAM-ICU Tool

Delirium leads to increased intensive care unit (ICU) patient morbidity and mortality, longer length of stay, and increased healthcare costs. Undetected delirium and unmanaged risk factors that contribute to the development of delirium are a significant issue in ICUs. The purpose of this project was to increase ICU nurses' knowledge about delirium and increase the usage of the Confusion Assessment Method for the ICU (CAM-ICU) tool so the information generated may be used to address and minimize the impact of delirium on ICU patients. A multimodal educational intervention was performed in the adult ICU of a community acute care hospital. The effectiveness of the intervention was evaluated by using preintervention and postintervention assessments of CAM-ICU documentation rates and delirium knowledge. One-hundred percent of the eligible nurses (n=11) participated in the didactic training course. Mean total scores on the knowledge assessment and knowledge of delirium screening tools subscale increased significantly from before to after the intervention (76% to 83% and 65% to 78%, respectively, p<0.05). CAM-ICU documentation rates also increased significantly (46% to 66%, p<0.0001). However, the change in mean scores on the knowledge of delirium features subscale and the delirium risk subscale was insignificant (63% to 73% and 83% to 88%, respectively, p>0.05). The project findings further validated previously published reports of the effectiveness of a multimodal educational intervention to increase ICU nurses' knowledge about delirium and increase CAM-ICU documentation rates.