Improving delirium recognition and assessment for people receiving inpatient palliative care : a mixed methods meta-synthesis

Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved..

BACKGROUND: Delirium is a serious acute neurocognitive condition frequently occurring for hospitalized patients, including those receiving care in specialist palliative care units. There are many delirium evidence-practice gaps in palliative care, including that the condition is under-recognized and challenging to assess.

OBJECTIVES: To report the meta-synthesis of a research project investigating delirium epidemiology, systems and nursing practice in palliative care units.

METHODS: The Delirium in Palliative Care (DePAC) project was a two-phase sequential transformative mixed methods design with knowledge translation as the theoretical framework. The project answered five different research questions about delirium epidemiology, systems of care and nursing practice in palliative care units. Data integration and metasynthesis occurred at project conclusion.

RESULTS: There was a moderate to high rate of delirium occurrence in palliative care unit populations; and palliative care nurses had unmet delirium knowledge needs and worked within systems and team processes that were inadequate for delirium recognition and assessment. The meta-inference of the DePAC project was that a widely-held but paradoxical view that palliative care and dying patients are different from the wider hospital population has separated them from the overall generation of delirium evidence, and contributed to the extent of practice deficiencies in palliative care units.

CONCLUSION: Improving palliative care nurses' capabilities to recognize and assess delirium will require action at the patient and family, nurse, team and system levels. A broader, hospital-wide perspective would accelerate implementation of evidence-based delirium care for people receiving palliative care, both in specialist units, and the wider hospital setting.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2017

Erschienen:

2017

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:75

Enthalten in:

International journal of nursing studies - 75(2017) vom: 10. Okt., Seite 123-129

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Hosie, Annmarie [VerfasserIn]
Agar, Meera [VerfasserIn]
Lobb, Elizabeth [VerfasserIn]
Davidson, Patricia M [VerfasserIn]
Phillips, Jane [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

Assessment
Delirium
Inpatients
Journal Article
Meta-Analysis
Palliative care
Screening

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 10.07.2018

Date Revised 10.07.2018

published: Print-Electronic

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2017.07.007

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM274572427