This simple quantitative descriptive case controlled research compared cases (subjects at risk for acute confusion) with controls (subjects without the attribute); comparison was made on the exposure to potential contributing factors suspected of causing acute confusion, for example, heavy smoking, or the number of alcoholic drinks consumed per day. Case-control studies were also retrospective, because they focused on conditions in the past that might have caused subjects to become cases, rather than controls. The basic purpose of this research design was essentially the same as that of experimental research: to determine the relationships among variables. This report demonstrates that, with relatively good adherence by the nursing team, proactive screening using a structured risk assessment protocol can be successfully implemented for medical patients. This assessment was associated with a statistically significant 50 per cent reduction in the incidence of acute confusion in the intervention group, compared with usual care retrospectively. Reduction in acute confusion was not associated with shortened length of stay, but length of stay was often predetermined by protocol or critical pathway. Correlation analysis demonstrated that risk screening appeared most effective in preventing or reducing acute confusion in patients without preadmission dementia or ADL impairment. In patients with significant preadmission impairment, the stress of hospitalisation may be sufficient to precipitate an episode, despite otherwise optimal management. Less-impaired patients may require additional insults to precipitate acute confusion, some of which are avertable by risk screening and subsequent early intervention. Determined risk indicators were consistent throughout the four year timeframe set for this research project. This demonstrated that although there were multiple patient types presenting to this clinical area, they were consistently the same over a longitudinal timeframe. It meant they were reproducible, which gave this research additional strength. Also, based on the descriptive statistics, this research has shown that in this clinical area where intervention was introduced the combination did have a positive impact on annual numbers of acute confusion. In summary, these findings suggest that without risk screening and the direction for appropriate management the likelihood of an episode can more than double. In the three subgroups expected to pose the greatest challenges for the risk assessment (i.e. those 70 years or older, those with suspected drug dependency, and those with symptomatic infection), risk assessment retained excellent sensitivity, (a) (d) specificity, and relevant correlation with reduction of episodes. This research has demonstrated throughout that high risk screening and associated intervention based on the risk indicator can decrease the annual number of actual episodes of acute confusion. Interventions to prevent or reduce an episode of acute confusion, as outlined by Wakefield (2002) and this research, definitely increases as a result of high risk screening. Beyond doubt, from both the literature reviewed and the findings of this research, is that risk screening does need to be adapted to the individual clinical setting and cannot be generic.

Akut förvirring är en kognitiv förändring som uppkommer plötsligt. Drabbade patienter upplevs exempelvis agiterade, rastlösa och apatiska. Patienter beskriver upplevelsen av akut förvirring som en abstrakt verklighet, vilket komplicerar vårdprocessen. Syftet var att beskriva sjuksköterskors erfarenhet kring vårdandet av akut förvirrade patienter. Metoden som användes var en litteraturstudie med systematisk ansats där databearbetningen inspirerades av kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Litteraturstudien visar att sjuksköterskor som möter akut förvirrade patienter på vårdavdelningar kan uppleva ökad tidspress och stress. Den akut förvirrade påverkar även övriga medarbetare och patienter, kräver mer resurser i form av övervakning och sjuksköterskor med rätt kompetens. Sjuksköterskor fokuserar på att bevara säkerheten för de akut förvirrade patienterna, detta uppmärksammas mer än människan bakom den akuta förvirringen. Sjuksköterskors förhållningssätt till de akut förvirrade blir att försöka få kontroll över patienterna genom olika strategier. Okunskap om akut förvirring visas genom att sjuksköterskor inte använder sig av vetenskapligt baserad kunskap. Prioritering blir nödvändigt för att effektivisera arbetet och för att sjuksköterskor ska kunna vara tillgängliga åt alla patienter - effektivisering av tid faller på bekostnad av akut förvirrade patienter. God kommunikation och medvetenhet om den åldersdiskriminering som förekommer är av vikt för att patienters upplevelser ska bli optimala och leda till minskat lidande vid akut förvirring. / Acute confusion is a cognitive impairment that occurs suddenly. Affected patients are for example perceived as agitated, restless and apathetic. Patients describe the experience of acute confusion as an abstract reality, this complicates the care process. The aim of this study was to describe nurses’ experience in the care of acutely confused patients. The method was a literature study with a systematic approach where the data processing was inspired by qualitative content analysis. The literature study shows that nurses who meet acute confused patients in wards may experience a lack of time and increased stress. The patient with acute confusion also affects other health careers and patients, requiring more resources in terms of monitoring and nurses with the right skill sets. Nurses are more focused on preserving the safety of the acutely confused patients than the person behind the acute confusion. Nurses’ attitudes towards the acutely confused patients are based on gaining control of the patients through various strategies. Unawareness of acute confusion is displayed by nurses’ inconsistency of the use of evidence-based knowledge. Prioritizing work is necessary to make the work more effective, it also helps the nurse to be at hand for all patients, although, managing and using time more effectively falls at the expense of the acutely confused patients. Good communication and awareness of the ageism that occurs is of importance so that the patients’ experiences become optimal and for reduction of suffering when in or after an acute confusion state.

Bakgrund: Intensivvårdspatienter utsätts för en påfrestande situation, vilket kan bidra till utvecklandet av iva-delirium. Iva-delirium är en form av hjärndysfunktion som leder till ökad sjuklighet, ökad mortalitet och ökade vårdkostnader i form av förlängd vårdtid. Studier visar att trots att iva-delirium är vanligt förekommande inom intensivvården så missas tillståndet ofta. Bedömningsinstrument för att identifiera iva-delirium finns men används vanligen i liten utsträckning inom svensk intensivvård. Detta kan leda till att intensivvårdssjuksköterskor, utifrån personlig erfarenhet, utvecklar olika strategier för att vårda patienter med iva-delirium. Syfte: Att beskriva intensivvårdssjuksköterskors personliga erfarenheter av att bedöma patienter som riskerar att drabbas av iva-delirium samt hur syndromet identifieras och förebyggs. Metod: En kvalitativ studie innehållande sex intervjuer genomfördes och analyserades utifrån en deskriptiv innehållsanalys. Resultat: Resultatet visade att intensivvårdssjuksköterskorna med hjälp av personliga erfarenheter skapade en framförhållning genom att förutse riskfaktorer och att identifiera kliniska tecken. Vidare visade intensivvårdssjuksköterskorna en förmåga att förebygga och resonera kring utförda åtgärder. En förståelse för vården av patienter med iva-delirium skapades genom etiska reflektioner. Slutsats: Intensivvårdssjuksköterskornas erfarenheter utgjordes av tre domäner; att se, att göra och att känna. Dessa olika erfarenheter interagerade med varandra, skedde simultant och skapade ett expertkunnande hos intensivvårdssjuksköterskorna. Trots denna förmåga framkom det att intensivvårdssjuksköterskornas kunskaper om iva-delirium och deras strategier varierade beroende på personlig erfarenhet. Klinisk betydelse: Genom att belysa intensivvårdssjuksköterskornas erfarenheter kan en ökad medvetenhet kring iva-delirium skapas och därmed förhoppningsvis medföra minskad prevalens. / Background: Critical care patients are exposed to a stressful situation, which could contribute to the development of icu-delirium. Icu-delirium is a form of brain dysfunction leading to higher morbidity, higher mortality and higher cost of care due to extended hospital stays. Even though studies show that icu-delirium is common within critical care the syndrome is often unrecognized. Delirium screening tools exist but are rarely used within Swedish critical care. The low implementation of screening tools could lead to that critical care nurses, based on personal experience, develop individual strategies for care of patients with icu-delirium. Aim: To describe experiences of assessing patients with risk for developing icu-delirium and how the syndrome is identified and prevented by critical care nurses. Methods: A qualitative study with six interviews was conducted and analyzed based on a descriptive qualitative content analysis. Results: The results showed that critical care nurses, based on earlier experiences, created an anticipation by discerning risk factors and identifying clinical signs. The critical care nurses showed an ability to perform preventive measurements while reasoning about already performed measurements. Through ethical reflections an understanding for the care of patients with icu-delirium was created. Conclusions: The experiences by critical care nurses was based on three domains; to see, to do and to feel. These domains occurred simultaneously and created the expertise of the critical care nurse. Despite this ability the knowledge of critical care nurses and their clinical assessment methods varied depending on earlier experiences. Relevance to clinical practice: By illuminating the experiences of critical care nurses hopefully a higher awareness regarding icu-delirium is created which will hopefully result in a lower prevalence.

The aim: was to describe and compare a group of experts and critical care nurses' agreement in detecting delirium in intubated, ventilator treated patients with sedation / analgesia, before and after an in house training intervention with the instrument Confusion Assessment Method for the Intensive Care Unit (CAM-ICU). Method: A quasi-experimental study, one group pretest - posttest design. A convenience sample of 17 critical care nurses in a general intensive care unit included. To detect delirium the instrument CAM-ICU was used, 21 paired tests before and 22 after an educational intervention. Main Results: The results showed that after an in house training intervention sensitivity and kappa coefficient improved of the characteristic 1 "acute onset and fluctuating course," an improvement that was significant. In other features, and overall values were signs of numerical improvement and deterioration in sensitivity, specificity and kappa coefficient but no significant change. Conclusion: Implementing a new instrument for detecting delirium in clinical practice requires education and follow-up. A small sample of critical care nurses with varying ability to use the new instrument and the fact that patients' status may change rapidly making it difficult to draw any conclusions from this study. It is clear, however, that education and follow-up is needed when new care routines are introduced, and that further studies are needed to clarify whether the CAM-ICU is a valit and reliable instrument to use in clinical practice. / Syftet var att beskriva och jämföra en expertgrupp och intensivvårdssjuksköterskors överensstämmelse i att detektera delirium hos intuberade, respiratorbehandlade patienter med sedering/analgesi, före och efter en utbildningsintervention med instrumentet Confusion assessment method for the intensive care unit (CAM-ICU). Metod: En kvasiexperimentell studie, en grupps pretest – posttest design. Ett bekvämlighetsurval på en allmän intensivvårdsavdelning där inkluderades 17 intensivvårdssjuksköterskor. För att detektera delirium användes instrumentet CAM-ICU, 21 parmätningarna före och 22 efter en utbildningsintervention. Huvudresultat: Resultatet visade att efter utbildningsinterventionen förbättrades sensitiviteten och kappa koefficienten i kännetecken 1 ”akut insättande eller fluktuerande förlopp”, en förbättring som var signifikant. I övriga kännetecken och totalvärden fanns tecken på numerär förbättring och försämring i sensitivitet, specificitet och kappakoefficient men ingen signifikant förändring. Slutsats: Att implementera ett nytt instrument för att detektera delirium i klinisk verksamhet kräver utbildning och uppföljning. Ett litet sample av intensivvårdssjuksköterskor med varierad förmåga att använda det nya instrumentet samt det faktum att patienters status hastigt kan förändras gör det svårt att dra några slutsatser av denna studie. Klart är dock att utbildning och uppföljning behövs när nya vårdrutiner införs, och att ytterligare studier behövs för att klargöra om CAM-ICU är ett valit och reliabelt instrument att använda i klinisk verksamhet.