Knowledge and Attitude of Intensive Care Unit Nurses Towards Delirium Working at Guilan University of Medical Sciences in 2015

Delirium is a common problem in patients hospitalized in Intensive Care Unit. Despite the importance, only less than 13% of cases are diagnosed by physicians and medical personnel.
The present research aimed to study knowledge and attitude of critical care nurses towards delirium.
This cross-sectional study was conducted in Iran. Convenience sampling was used to enroll nurses (186 persons) working in intensive care units of Rasht educational hospitals affiliated to Guilan University of Medical Sciences in 2015. Data collection instruments included a three part questionnaire: demographic data, 15- item questionnaire formerly used by Guthrie and Sendelbach (2009) on nurses’ knowledge about delirium, and 10-item questionnaire adopted from Herrero et al on attitude of the nurses towards delirium. The obtained data were statistically analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation coefficient and t- test in SPSS-20.
The majority of nurses (68.3%) have intermediate knowledge about delirium and only 24.6 percent reported good knowledge and 76 percent had positive attitude about delirium.
Nursing knowledge and awareness have a significant role in improvement of the quality of healthcare and preventive measures, as well as the attitude of nurses towards dealing with delirium patients. Hence, it is recommended to give greater importance to academic courses and ongoing post-graduation professional development programs in the workplace, as a globally practiced healthcare quality improvement strategy.