As intervenções de enfermagem na pessoa com delirium, em cuidados paliativos

: uma scoping review

Abstract

Introduction: Despite delirium is a highly prevalent neurocognitive disorder in palliative care, it remains under diagnosed and, therefore, is incorrectly treated or untreated. This syndrome causes great anguish and suffering not only in the patients and their families but also in the healthcare professionals. Nurses are in a privileged position regarding the early recognition, prevention and management of this syndrome, especially in inpatients, since they are always present in this context. The goal of this essay is to identify the nursing interventions that should be implemented in patients who suffer from delirium, in the context of palliative care.Methods: A scoping review was carried out. The review only included studies that involved patients with incurable and/or severe illness and with limited prognosis, in the context of palliative care. The concept addressed were the nursing interventions in the face of events of delirium, in the patient and his family. The recommendations of JBI were complied with, where an initial research was conducted in Pubmed/MEDLINE,CINAHL/EBSCO, COCHRANE and in scientific repositories, and the bibliographic references of the studies found were subsequently analysed.Results: 33 articles were included, which, for the most part, correspond to narrative literature reviews with a focus on in-patients. The results show that the effective management of delirium requires a multidimensional approach that includes concomitant interventions in different areas, focusing on the patient, on the family, on the team and on prevention.Conclusions: Despite the findings relevance, these have a low level of evidence,wherefore there is still a long way to go to test their applicability and efficiency in randomized control studies and thus allowing for its extrapolation into care practice.Nevertheless, it may still be reasonable to implement these measures where appropriate, since they have low risk of harm and could provide significant benefits.

Date of Award	22 Jun 2020
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Manuel Luís Capelas (Supervisor)