The effect of an educational intervention to improve orthopaedic nurses’ knowledge of delirium: A quasi-experimental study

Background: Lack of delirium knowledge and its clinical repercussions contributes to the absence of delirium prevention activities in routine clinical practice. 

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a delirium awareness educational program on nurses’ knowledge about delirium prevention and management. 

Methods: A quasi-experimental (pre-intervention, post-intervention test) design was used to test the effectiveness of an educational intervention using a knowledge survey. 

Results: There was no difference in the knowledge scores between the 2 periods for domains 1, 2 3 and 4. However, the median (IQR) knowledge scores for domain 5 (risk factors) and domain 6 (recognising delirium) was higher at post-intervention compared to pre-intervention. 

Conclusion: A multi-step educational intervention had a positive but small impact on nurses’ knowledge of delirium. However, the training was not mandatory and uptake of the training was not as high as hoped. Most nurses preferred ward-based education - combination of formal knowledge delivery and informal practice discussion. Future studies should focus on programs which are ward-based including various of teaching styles.