[Nursing interventions for the prevention of the delirium in intensive care unit (ICU): a randomized study]

The delirium is a common and problematic condition that involves between 10% and 50% of the in-patients. The in-patients in intensive care unit (ICU) are more at risk (about 38%). These data are not realistic because delirium is a condition that can be either unrecognized or misdiagnosed; between 66% and 84% of delirium in elderly hospitalized patients is unrecognized by clinicians. The aim of this study is to verify if nurses activities directed to the patient and environment, for maintaining time-space orientation and cognitive functions, can diminish or slow down the increase of delirium. The sample of this study is made up of 48 patients; using randomize technique 31 patients were assigned to the control group and 17 to the experimental group.

In the control group 6 patients were assessed with delirium, while 3 were assessed in the experimental group; the relative risk is 0.9 and the Odds ratio 0.9.

The results of this study demonstrate that the nurses' activities can have an important role in order to assess, diminish and slow down the increase of delirium.