Evaluation of a co-produced delirium awareness programme for undergraduate nursing students in Northern Ireland: a pre-test/post-test study

Abstract

Background: Delirium is recognised internationally as a common disorder that causes acute deterioration in a person's cognitive abilities. Healthcare professionals play a key role in the early identification and management of delirium and effective education can support timely recognition and treatment. There is currently a lack of research exploring the delirium education provided to undergraduate nursing students. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a co-produced delirium awareness programme on undergraduate nursing students in Northern Ireland. Methods: The intervention was a 2-h delirium workshop, delivered in April 2019, to a convenience sample of year one undergraduate nursing students (n = 206) completing a BSc Honours Nursing degree programme in a Northern Ireland University. The workshop focused on four core elements: defining delirium, reflecting on practice, recognition of delirium and management of delirium. Participants completed a 35-item true-false Delirium Knowledge Questionnaire (DKQ) at baseline and post intervention using Socrative, a cloud-based student response system. In addition, students also completed a short questionnaire at baseline and post-workshop, designed by the authors, to ascertain perceived confidence about caring for people with delirium. Data were analysed using paired t-tests and descriptive statistics. Results: In the DKQ, Scores were normally distributed around the mean at baseline (71.89%) and post intervention (81.89%). Students improved across all three core areas in the post-test questionnaire, demonstrating improvements in knowledge about symptoms of delirium (7.32% increase), causes and risk factors of delirium (17.91% increase) and management of delirium (5.72% increase). In relation to perceived confidence, students reported a 60.20% increase in confidence related to recognition of delirium, a 49.51% increase in relation to delirium management and a 45.04% increase their ability to communicate about delirium. Both questionnaires were statistically significant (P < 0.01).

Evaluation of a delirium awareness podcast for undergraduate nursing students in Northern Ireland: a pre−/post-test study

“…In relation to perceived professional confidence about delirium, nursing student confidence about delirium significantly increased post-podcast. These findings are also consistent with the team’s original co-designed delirium awareness programme [ 20 ].…”

“…One topic of learning that was affected was delirium awareness. Year one nursing students were scheduled to receive a two-hour face-to-face workshop on delirium which was originally co-designed by people who had experienced delirium, expert clinicians, and academic staff [ 20 ]. The project team worked together to adapt delivery of this co-produced content to a podcast format.…”

“…To ensure that the previously agreed learning outcomes were met, the podcast used the previous running order from earlier co-designed education about delirium [ 20 ]. The delirium podcast threaded the two real-life stories throughout the three core elements of defining delirium, recognition of delirium and management of delirium.…”

“…The DKQ was developed to gauge knowledge about delirium from the perspective of healthcare professionals like nurses and doctors. This questionnaire [ 26 ] was used by the authors in their previous co-design study [ 20 ]. The DKQ was not modified and is divided into three main sections which focus on: 1) Presentation, symptoms and outcomes of delirium ( n = 10 items), 2) Causes and risk factors of delirium ( n = 11 items), and 3) Delirium prevention and management strategies ( n = 14 items) [ 26 ].…”

“…In a previous paper, the authors (GM GC & CBW) described how they worked with people who had experienced delirium, specialist delirium nurses and nurse academics to co-design a face-to-face ‘delirium awareness’ programme for year one nursing students at Queen’s University Belfast [ 20 ]. This intervention showed statistically significant improvements in student nurse knowledge and confidence about delirium [ 20 ]. However, because of the recent COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing measures face-to-face delivery of this programme could not take place.…”