Introduction: Up to 60% of elderly will develop delirium during the course of their hospitalization. Less than 50% of nurses can screen for delirium, although it is a medical emergency and that the evaluation of mental state constitutes one of their responsibilities.
Objective: Evaluate the effect of a training program on screening for delirium on the competence perception of nurses in a medicine unit.
Methodology: Quasi experimental, comparing two groups of nurses working on medicine units, in two different hospitals. The independent variable, an active training taking into account experience and knowledge of nurses, did include a tool based on the "confusion assessment method". The dependent variable, the perception of competence, was measured before training and 6 months later with a pre-tested self-administered questionnaire.
Results: Response rate was higher than 90% at time 1 and 2. There was no difference in the perception of competence between groups before training. The experimental group improved statistically but not the comparison group.
Conclusion: This study suggests a significant improvement in perception of competence following an active training hopefully enhancing screening of delirium, thus the well-being of hospitalized elderly.