Delirium affects more than half of elderly hospitalized adults, with associated morbidity, mortality, increased length of hospital stay, higher than average hospital costs, and poor outcomes. Despite the prevalence of delirium and associated hardships, delirium goes underdiagnosed, nationally. With the ever increasing aging population, hospitals and healthcare providers are challenged with this epidemiologic issue, requiring an evidence based approach to enhance the health and well-being of the older adults and preventing detrimental outcomes. The purpose of the project was to implement this CAM-S tool to answer the clinical question, “Will implementing the CAM-S instrument, on the orthopedic/neuology unit, among all nurses caring for hip fracture patients, as compared to no instrument, increase the number of patients detected with delirium in 30 days?
