Nursing perspectives on the confusion assessment method: a qualitative focus group study.

Background: the Confusion Assessment Method (CAM) is commonly used to detect delirium. Although accurate when administered by trained researchers, its sensitivity is low when performed by nurses in clinical practice. We aimed to understand the perspectives of nurses who used the CAM on orthopaedic wards. Design: qualitative focus group study. Setting: two academic hospitals in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Participants: forty-three nurses who worked on orthopaedic inpatient units and used the CAM daily participated in one of eight focus group sessions. Measurements: structured focus groups explored nurses' perception of delirium and the use of the CAM. Each transcript was coded and sampling continued until theme saturation. Results: the participants (84% female, mean age 40 years, mean years in practice 12.8) had mixed feelings about the CAM. Some nurses praised its simplicity, while others preferred a narrative description of the delirium episode. Only 35% recalled receiving training to administer the CAM. Across the groups, disorientation was inappropriately used to evaluate level of consciousness and inattention. Objective testing was reportedly rarely used for assessing inattention. Most nurses retrospectively completed the CAM at the end of their shift by extrapolating from earlier observations rather than formally administering the tool. Reported challenges included differentiating delirium from dementia, assessing non-verbal patients and those with language barriers, time constraints, discrepancy with physicians' assessments and pressure to diagnose delirium. Conclusion: despite its widespread use, the CAM was poorly understood by orthopaedic nurses at two academic institutions. The CAM may be difficult to implement in practice.

Impact of a mandatory geriatric medicine clerkship on the care of older acute medical patients: a retrospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: The impact of geriatric medicine educational programs on patient level outcomes, as opposed to educational measures, is not well studied. We aimed to determine whether completion of a mandatory geriatrics rotation changed the clinical behaviors of clerks caring for older patients admitted to a medical clinical teaching unit. METHODS: We reviewed the charts of 132 older (>70y) patients, admitted to one medical clinical teaching unit (CTU) during 2005, and cared for by a clinical clerk, for documented functional assessment, cognitive assessment, recognition of medications that cause confusion, and early removal of indwelling urinary catheters. Performance of these outcomes was compared between clerks who had completed a mandatory 2-week geriatrics rotation immediately before the medical CTU rotation (n = 62) and those who completed geriatrics immediately after (n = 74). Patient outcomes were also measured and compared between groups. RESULTS: Compared to clerks without prior geriatric exposure, clerks with geriatrics exposure were almost 3 times as likely to assess function of their older patients within two days of assuming care (27% vs. 12%, OR: 2.73, 95% CI: 1.12 to 6.66). There were no significant differences in the other clinical behaviors. Patients cared for by geriatrics-exposed clerks were less likely to die or be institutionalized (10% vs. 31%, OR: 0.24, 95% CI: 0.09 to 0.63), and they had shorter lengths of stay by an average of -7.14 days (95% CI: -12.2 to -2.07). Adjustment for baseline differences in age and cognitive impairment did not alter the results. CONCLUSIONS: Clinical clerks who had completed a mandatory geriatrics rotation were more likely to document functional status upon assuming care of their older medical CTU patients, and there was also an association with better clinical outcomes. This highlights the value of including a geriatric medicine rotation as part of the core clerkship curriculum.

Online Educational Tools for Caregivers of People with Dementia: A Scoping Literature Review.

BACKGROUND: Informal caregivers of people with dementia provide the majority of health-based care to people with dementia. Providing this care requires knowledge and access to resources, which caregivers often do not receive. We set out to evaluate the effect of online educational tools on informal caregiver self-efficacy, quality of life, burden/stress, depression, and anxiety, and to identify effective processes for online educational tool development. METHODS: We conducted a scoping review of articles on online educational interventions for informal caregivers of people with dementia searching CINAHL, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PubMed from 1990 to March 2018, with an updated search conducted in 2020. The identified articles were screened and the data were charted. RESULTS: 33 articles that reported on 24 interventions were included. There is some evidence that online interventions improve caregiver-related outcomes such as self-efficacy, depression, dementia knowledge, and quality of life; and decrease caregiver burden. Common findings across the studies included the need for tailored, stage-specific information applicable to the caregiver's situation and the use of psychosocial techniques to develop the knowledge components of the interventions. CONCLUSION: We demonstrate the importance of having caregivers and health-care professionals involved at all stages of tool conceptualization and development. Online tools should be evaluated with robust trials that focus on how increased knowledge and development approaches affect caregiver-related outcomes.

Heart failure and cognitive impairment: challenges and opportunities.

As populations age, heart failure (HF) is becoming increasingly common, and in addition to a high burden of morbidity and mortality, HF has an enormous financial impact. Though disproportionately affected by HF, the elderly are less likely to receive recommended therapies, in part because clinical trials of HF therapy have ignored outcomes of importance to this population, including impaired cognitive function (ICF). HF is associated with ICF, manifested primarily as delirium in hospitalized patients, or as mild cognitive impairment or dementia in otherwise stable outpatients. This association is likely the result of shared risk factors, as well as perfusion and rheological abnormalities that occur in patients with HF. Evidence suggests that these abnormalities may be partially reversible with standard HF therapy. The clinical consequences of ICF in HF patients are significant. Clinicians should consider becoming familiar with screening instruments for ICF, including delirium and dementia, in order to identify patients at risk of nonadherence to HF therapy and related adverse consequences. Preliminary evidence suggests that optimal HF therapy in elderly patients may preserve or even improve cognitive function, though the impact on related outcomes remains to be determined.