Caring for a patient with delirium in an acute hospital: The lived experience of cardiology, elderly care, renal, and respiratory nurses

Aims: To explore the lived experience of caring for a patient during an acute episode of delirium by nurses working in cardiology, elderly care, renal, or respiratory specialities. Background: A missed or delayed diagnosis of delirium in an acute hospital setting adversely impacts on patient outcomes. Nurses are the best placed health care professionals to identify a change in patients cognitive status but struggle to do so. Design: Inductive interpretative phenomenology. Methods: Semi-structured interviews with nurses working in an acute hospital in England between November 2016 and March 2017 (n = 23). Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic analysis. Findings: Three themes were identified: (i) sometimes delirium is confusing, difficultly in differentiating between delirium and dementia; (ii) everyone in the ward was looking after him, a need for collaborative working to provide harm free care; and (iii) he was aggressive with us, but after treatment he was a gentleman, acceptance and tolerance of aggression. Conclusion: The need for education across specialities, with a combination of classroom and simulation teaching. Alongside, the development of structures to support the development of nursing teamwork and reporting of near miss incidents that occur with patients during an episode of delirium.