Solved! Discuss the challenges of safety in those suffering from delirium.
Discuss the challenges of safety in those suffering from delirium.
The Challenges of Safety in Delirium Patients
Delirium is a form of cognitive impairment manifesting as memory relapse, and altered awareness and cognition, with these symptoms presenting in seniors or in people with preexisting medical disorders. This condition is characterized by rapid decline in cognition, with the symptoms being temporary as they improve with the improvement of underlying condition that causes it. The cognitive impact of delirium is usually severe if it stems from dementia, with complete recovery being impossible especially for people with dementia (Lee et al., 2023). Because delirium alters clients’ behaviors and cognitive functioning, it poses significant risks to patients and healthcare workers. This underscores the need to prioritize managing delirium-based safety concerns.
The safety risks seen with delirium is the fall risk including the risk of injury. This is because the condition is characterized by negative experiences like impaired attention and disorientation, which poses the risk of falls. The memory relapse tied to delirium results to impaired judgment, causing misinterpretation of one’s environment, and heightening the risk of injuries. Heightened symptoms of delirium that manifest as aggression and uneasiness, causing self-inflicted injuries especially as the patient makes attempt to disconnect catheters.
Communication concerns seen with delirium creates assessment challenges for therapists. When the patient is unable to express how they feel during assessment due to delirium, this may compromise diagnosis, which could lead to health complications. Unrecognized health problem in particular jeopardizes the patient’s wellbeing, and results to heightened risk of adverse health outcomes. For instance, a delirium patient that is also hypertensive is at risk of developing stroke if they are unable to share with their providers their hypertension history (Li & Guo, 2024).
The safety concerns linked to delirium stem from the altered cognition and perception. Because delirium is characterized by altered perception of reality, the patient misinterprets the cues within their surroundings, affecting their behavior or how they respond. This may cause them to react aggressively even when healthcare workers have intention of helping them. This complicates safety management for delirium patients (Li & Guo, 2024).
Delirium symptoms are unstable, fluctuating from time to time, which makes monitoring and supervision of patients complicated. Given this instability of the symptoms, predicting the time of the patient’s disorientation becomes a challenge. This necessitates consistent and close monitoring of the patient, which is equally a challenge especially with the lack of availability of adequate workforce. Missing the symptoms that present with delirium due to limited staff members like aggression, worsens the patient’s safety risks, exposing them to the risk of accidents (Al Huraizi et al., 2023).
For the delirium patients with underlying medical conditions, safe treatment of these conditions and management of the delirium symptoms is a challenge. The forgetfulness that comes with delirium may lead to the patient taking more or less of the medication they are prescribed. This non-compliance could either cause antibiotic resistance, or cause the health complications to worsen. For patients on sedative medications, taking these medications can worsen the delirium symptoms like confusion. Thus, part of the safety precautions considered involve regular review of the medications that have the potential of exacerbating the delirium symptoms (Al Huraizi et al., 2023).
In conclusion, delirium is associated with significant safety risks for patients, with these patients being at heightened risk of developing health complications and suffering injuries. Close monitoring of the patient and comprehensive assessment of the patient is crucial to preventing the health complications linked to delirium.
References
Al Huraizi, A. R., Al-Maqbali, J. S., Al Farsi, R. S., Al Zeedy, K., Al-Saadi, T., Al-Hamadani, N., & Al Alawi, A. M. (2023). Delirium and Its Association with Short- and Long-Term Health Outcomes in Medically Admitted Patients: A Prospective Study. Journal of clinical medicine, 12(16), 5346. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm12165346.
Lee, S., Howard, M. A., 3rd, & Han, J. H. (2023). Delirium and Delirium Prevention in the Emergency Department. Clinics in Geriatric Medicine, 39(4), 535–551. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cger.2023.05.006.
Li, H. R., & Guo, Y. (2024). High-Risk Factors for Delirium in Severely Ill Patients and The Application of Emotional Nursing Combined with Pain Nursing. World Journal of Psychiatry, 14(7), 1027–1033. https://doi.org/10.5498/wjp.v14.i7.1027.
