A NEW toolkit designed to help carers and nurses detect delirium earlier is being trialled at Tweed Valley Hospital.<\/p>\n
The Prevention and Early Delirium Identification Carer Toolkit, known as PREDICT, was developed by Southern Cross University in partnership with Northern NSW Local Health District.<\/p>\n
The multimedia program will be trialled over 12 months, with adults aged over 65 admitted to medical and some surgical wards at Tweed Valley and Lismore Base hospitals invited to take part.<\/p>\n
Professor Christina Aggar, who is leading the project with support from a $1.34 million National Health and Medical Research Council grant, said delirium is a sudden stress response triggered by illness, surgery, pain or unfamiliar hospital environments.<\/p>\n
“It’s a sudden change and traditionally it’s been a hospital-acquired complication, either from a surgery or the fact that the patient is in a strange environment like intensive care with bright lights and beeps going off,” she said.<\/p>\n
Aggar said family members often notice subtle behavioural changes before clinicians.<\/p>\n
“Quite often there are subtle changes that suggest that a person is acquiring a delirium, and this is the period where family are important in terms of noticing those changes,” she said.<\/p>\n
“If we can at least pick up those subtle signs early then it’s more likely to resolve much quicker.”<\/p>\n
Clinical Nurse Consultant Belinda Lincoln said her own experience reinforced the importance of early detection after her uncle developed delirium following a fall.<\/p>\n
“He was incredibly confused and he was hallucinating,” she said.<\/p>\n
“He was seeing people having campfires in the middle of the room.”<\/p>\n
Lincoln said the episode was distressing because it dramatically changed his normally gentle personality.<\/p>\n
“That was not his personality at all,” she said.<\/p>\n
Karen Bowen, nurse manager for clinical practice in nursing and midwifery, said carers play a vital role in helping staff recognise early warning signs.<\/p>\n
“We’re so reliant on our patients’ families and loved ones because they understand the people that they love and care for every day,” she said.<\/p>\n
Bowen said the Northern Rivers’ ageing population makes early detection increasingly important, with one in four hospital patients expected to be over 70 by 2040.<\/p>\n
The PREDICT trial forms part of a three year study involving more than 2,500 patients across hospitals in NSW, the ACT and Queensland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A NEW toolkit designed to help carers and nurses detect delirium earlier is being trialled at Tweed Valley Hospital. The Prevention and Early Delirium Identification Carer Toolkit, known as PREDICT, was developed by Southern Cross University in partnership with Northern NSW Local Health District. The multimedia program will be trialled over 12 months, with adults […]<\/p>\n