Delirium is a healthcare issue that continues to challenge critical care nurses. Providing doula services under the supervision of critical care nurses to critically ill older adults with delirium may be an innovative model for addressing these care needs.
Delirium is a healthcare issue that continues to challenge critical care nurses on a day-to-day basis. Management of patients with delirium is time intensive and costly, and poor outcomes are a risk. To maximize nursing care resources, critical care providers may need to work from novel perspectives and use new models to meet the care needs imposed by delirium. A doula (doó la) is traditionally described as a layperson who offers physical, emotional, and informational support to women in labor and the women’s partners. An innovative model for addressing the care needs of intensive care unit (ICU) patients includes using doulas to care for critically ill adults. In this article, we...