Awareness of Delirium by ICU Nurses

Delirium is a critical issue in the intensive care unit (ICU), and the correct diagnosis and treatment of this disorder by the ICU team are doubtful on many occasions due to a lack of information. This research is intended to test the awareness and control of ICU delirium by the ICU nurses. A nonexperimental, quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted using a previously adopted and translated to Arabic and validated questionnaire. The sample include nurses who work in ICUs of 10 Palestinian hospitals (private and public) located in the West Bank and Jerusalem participated in this study; each gave consent to be part of this study. Approval was received from the Palestinian Ministry of Health and the Ethical Committee at Birzeit University. Version 19 of the Social Sciences Statistical Package (SPSS) software was used to analyze the data. The results showed that ICU nurses hold moderate to low levels of knowledge and lack of adequate clinical experience to handle delirium. Delirium is a common complication in the ICU that increases morbidity and mortality and increases the length of ICU stay, therefore the cost of health care rise and the quality of life is decreased. In clinical practice, there are no assessment guidelines and protocols for patients with delirium.