Still psychomotor skills dominate peritoneal dialysis patient training, there is a need of both a deeper understanding of affective learning objectives and the accurate use of (self-)assessment tools, particularly for health literacy.
Background: Delirium is an acute disturbance characterized by fluctuating symptoms related to attention, awareness and recognition. Especially for elderly patients, delirium is frequently associated with high hospital costs and resource consumption, worse functional deterioration and increased mortality rates. Early recognition of risk factors and delirium symptoms enables medical staff to prevent or treat negative effects. Most studies examining screening instruments for delirium were conducted in intensive care units and surgical wards, and rarely in general medical wards. The aim of the study is to validate the Nursing Delirium Screening Scale (Nu-DESC) and the Delirium Observation Screening Scale (DOS) in general medical wards in a German tertiary care hospital, considering predisposing delirium risk factors in patients aged 65 and older. Methods: The prospective observational study including 698 patients was conducted between May and August 2018 in two neurological and one cardiology ward. During their shifts, trained nurses assessed all patients aged 65 or older for delirium symptoms using the Nu-DESC and the DOS. Delirium was diagnosed according to the DSM-5 criteria by neurologists. Patient characteristics and predisposing risk factors were obtained from the digital patient management system. Descriptive and bivariate statistics were computed. Results: The study determined an overall delirium occurrence rate of 9.0%. Regarding the DOS, sensitivity was 0.94, specificity 0.86, PPV 0.40 NPV 0.99 and regarding the Nu-DESC, sensitivity was 0.98, specificity 0.87, PPV 0.43, NPV 1.00. Several predisposing risk factors increased the probability of delirium: pressure ulcer risk OR: 17.3; falls risk OR: 14.0; immobility OR: 12.7; dementia OR: 5.38.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.