Easy as ABC: How Staff Nurses Transformed Unit Culture to Assess and Manage Delirium in the Intensive Care Unit

Delirious patients are common in intensive care units (ICUs). Delirium occurs in 20% to 50% of nonintubated ICU patients and 60% to 85% of ICU patients who are receiving mechanical ventilation.¹  Delirium is associated with increased mortality, increased hospital stay and cost of care, and long-term deterioration of cognitive and functional processes.²  Delirium is a multifactorial syndrome that is missed by critical care nurses and clinicians approximately 72% of the time when a nurse is completing a general bedside assessment.^3,4  Positive outcomes for patients can be achieved through the use of evidence-based assessment tools to help better detect and manage delirium.

The ICU at Fox Chase Cancer Center (FCCC) is an 8-bed unit that provides care to medical and surgical oncology patients. The patients at FCCC are at high risk for ICU delirium because of the chronicity of their illness and the possible cancer disease...