Nurses knowledge, practice and strain of care for delirium management among critical care nurses in Kuwait hospitals

     Jassim Al Barrak

This study aim to (i) assess ICU nurses’ knowledge of delirium, practice skills of delirium assessment and management, and strain of care when caring for patients having delirium in Kuwaiti ICUs; (ii) identify relations between ICU nurses’ knowledge, practice skills, and strain of care for delirium in Kuwait; and (iii) test for significant differences in nurses’ knowledge, practice skills, and strain of care between nurses’ different demographic characteristics groups. The target population of this study is critical care nurses working in adult ICUs in Kuwaiti hospitals. Study sample selected from the total population which is estimated to be 822 nurses who are working in different critical care units in Kuwait. The study found that (i) the sample ICU nurses of both Group 1 and Group 2 generally have average knowledge of delirium despite generally having several years of experience in ICUs, and (ii) Group 2 nurses have higher levels of knowledge of delirium than Group 1 nurses. The study found that perceptions of the sample nurses of the level of effectiveness of 20 practices in delirium management varied widely amongst members of each group and between the two groups and nurses of Group 1 rank the 20 investigated skills and practices for delirium management as about 60% effective in delirium management. Stated otherwise, almost 60.0% of the 20 listed practices are effective in delirium management. The study found that a nurse’s knowledge of delirium increases, his/her perception of the effectiveness of the 20 practices for management of delirium listed on the NPSDM instrument increases, and vice versa. The study results of testing for significant differences between the demographic characteristics groups of Group 1 ICU nurses in the main variables of the study (median scores on the NKD, NPSDM, and SCDI instruments) revealed that out of 24 potential combinations of variables and groups, only four significant differences between groups have been detected: Healthcare sector-NKD, ICU Category-NPSDM, Experience in Nursing-SCDI, Experience in ICU-SCDI.