Preparing Family Caregivers to Recognize Delirium Symptoms in Older Adults After Elective Hip or Knee Arthroplasty.

Objectives: To test the feasibility of a telephone-based intervention that prepares family caregivers to recognize delirium symptoms and how to communicate their observations to healthcare providers.

Design: Mixed-method, pre-post quasi-experimental design.

Setting: A Midwest Veterans Affairs Medical Center and a nonprofit health system.

Engaging Nursing Staff in Research: The Clinical Nurse Specialist Role in an Academic-Clinical Partnership.

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to describe the processes of exploring and implementing an academic-clinical study, engaging nursing staff in research, and maintaining their enthusiasm within the context of an academic-clinical research partnership.

Description: The core competencies of the clinical nurse specialist (CNS) role address evidence-based practice, quality improvement, and research. Studies and exemplars of the CNS role in the literature illustrate expert practitioner and facilitator of evidence-based practice, but less attention is given to methods used by the CNS to engage staff in clinical research.

Educating Family Caregivers for Older Adults About Delirium: A Systematic Review.

Background: Delirium in older adults is considered a medical emergency; it contributes to a cascade of functional decline and to increased mortality. Early recognition of delirium symptoms is critical to prevent these negative consequences. Family caregivers who are educated about delirium could partner with nurses and other healthcare professionals in early recognition of delirium symptoms.

Psychometric Properties of the Family Caregiver Delirium Knowledge Questionnaire.

A valid, reliable measure of family caregivers' knowledge about delirium was not located in the literature; such an instrument is essential to assess learning needs and outcomes of education provided. The purpose of the current study was to (a) develop a family Caregiver Delirium Knowledge Questionnaire (CDKQ) based on the Symptom Interpretation Model; and (b) establish validity and reliability of the measure. The 19-item CDKQ was developed and administered to 164 family caregivers for community-dwelling older adults.

Family Caregivers' Knowledge of Delirium and Preferred Modalities for Receipt of Information.

Delirium is a life-threatening, frequently reversible condition that is often a sign of an underlying health problem. In-hospital mortality alone for older adults with delirium ranges from 25% to 33%. Early recognition of delirium is critical because prolonged duration poses a greater risk of poor functional outcomes for older adults.

Public health model identifies recruitment barriers among older adults with delirium and dementia.

Recruiting older adults and their family caregivers into research studies presents challenges. Although the literature notes some general recruitment challenges, no studies specifically address the unique challenges of recruiting older adults who have Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and their family caregivers in studies about delirium or suggest using a framework to identify barriers to recruiting this population. In conducting a pilot study about preparing family caregivers to detect delirium symptoms in older adults with (AD) the researchers used the Public Health Model for identifying barriers to recruitment.