“Delirium: An essential component in undergraduate training?”

Delirium

“…Delirium remains grossly under-diagnosed and undetected 248 , with fewer than half of delirium cases in hospital typically being detected 248 . Multiple reasons exist for under-diagnosis, including, amongst others, a general lack of delirium training at all levels including in undergraduate education 249 , attitudes such as the perception that delirium is not 'owned' by (that is, the responsibility of) certain specialties or groups of practitioners 250 , the use of imprecise alternative terms such as 'confusion' , and a lack of perception that delirium is important. It is now clear that successful implementation of delirium detection, treatment and risk reduction is a complex challenge 251 , requiring an educational programme addressing both attitudes and skills, supported by audit, and using tools with proven implementability and tailored to the population to be tested.…”

“…Major challenges remain in the implementation of effective detection, prevention and treatment methods in mainstream clinical practice. Undoubtedly, these challenges are due to the generally poor coverage of delirium in the education and training of medical practitioners and nurses 249 as well as to the consequent low levels of awareness and skill and lack of appropriate attitudes with respect to 'ownership' of delirium care as one of the most common and serious acute medical conditions 14,250 . Another key issue is the lack of clinical implementation studies 353 .…”

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

“…With consideration to the pre-registration teaching of healthcare professionals, approaches to delirium education remain inconsistent and there is a paucity of investigation about the impact on undergraduate nursing students specifically [45,46]. Findings from a recent Delphi-study indicated some important areas for development in delirium education amongst undergraduate nursing students at Universities in Scotland [17]. Key findings from this Delphi-study included: the lack of education that differentiated between dementia and delirium, the inclusion of delirium education as a self-taught component only, the lack of specific learning outcomes related to delirium and the reliance on clinical placement areas to provide education about delirium in the absence of University-teaching about the subject [17].…”

“…There have been few studies that have examined the impact of delirium education on nursing students and this is surprising given their role in the assessment, planning, implementing and evaluation of patient care across primary, secondary and tertiary care settings [17][18][19]. 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].…”

The influence of a serious game’s narrative on students’ attitudes and learning experiences regarding delirium: an interview study

“…This type of learning is used in many fields of healthcare professions education [ 49 , 50 ]. Healthcare professionals describe that they often rely on experiential learning when they provide delirium care, especially in cases where they lack education or experience to provide good quality care [ 14 , 35 , 51 ]. However, experiential learning is not often explicitly incorporated into delirium education [ 14 , 36 , 51 ].…”