Improving the Validity of Nurse-Based Delirium Screening: A Head-to-Head Comparison of Nursing Delirium-Screening Scale and Short Confusion Assessment Method

As part of a multicomponent delirium prevention protocol the Confusion Assessment Method (Short-CAM) was introduced to nursing as the standard delirium screening instrument on the general medical units. Despite significant educational efforts, quality monitoring revealed poor sensitivity with the use of Short-CAM.

To compare the validity of the Nursing Delirium Screening Scale (Nu-DESC) and Short-CAM on general medical units and to explore the impact of delirium education on the successful implementation of delirium screening tools.

In this quality improvement project, both Nu-DESC and Short-CAM were scored by nurses on 2 general medical units, per standard practice. Two blinded physician-raters determined delirium diagnosis in 192 patients on these units on 8 separate days, utilizing the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5 criteria as the reference standard. Sensitivity and specificity of both scales were calculated.

Thirty-five of 192 patients (18.2%) were suffering from delirium on the day of assessment. The Short-CAM scored positive for 3 (1.6%) patients and the Nu-DESC for 50 (26.0%) patients on the same day as the physician-raters assessment. Sensitivity and specificity were respectively calculated at 8.6% and 100% for the Short-CAM and 77.1% and 85.4% for the Nu-DESC. There was no statistical difference in sensitivity and specificity of the Nu-DESC on the units regardless of the level of preimplementation delirium education.

The Nu-DESC was shown to be an easy-to-deploy delirium-screening tool on general medical units with improved sensitivity when compared to the Short-CAM.