To this point, my knowledge of delirium and factors to prevent delirium mostly come from a pharmacological standpoint and very little hands-on experience.I know that delirium can be caused by a variety of factors. This can include that which is outlined in the acronym DELIRIUM which includes drugs or medications, electrolyte imbalance (dehydration), lack of drugs (withdrawal, uncontrolled pain), infection, reduced sensory input (visual or auditory), Intracranial (CVA, subdural, etc), urinary retention/ fecal impaction, myocardial/ pulmonary. To prevent delirium there are some things you can do including making sure patients have adequate access to their glasses, hearing aids, making sure patients are oriented and have the windows open. With regards to previously experiencing caring for a patient who is experiencing delirium, I’m not 100% sure if I have taken care of someone with delirium. Honestly, I wasn’t sure if he was delirious or had dementia. I went through the majority of the BCAM and he didn’t get multiple questions correct, but my nurse said we don’t know his baseline.

My personal learning goals for this volunteer experience includes multiple goals. First, I’d like to be able to make clinical differentiation between dementia and delirium. Additionally, I’d like to be able to help prevent delirium short term but also I’d like to pull my knowledge and bring it forth to my own practice when I become a nurse. To be honest, part of me is a little nervous of a couple things. First, I feel like I am going to have a hard time setting boundaries with patients if they say they need help for example going to the bathroom, knowing I’m medically trained to do so but not in the role I am there for today. I’m nervous I’m not going to intervene enough and just chit chat. Areas I feel ready for are connecting with the patient and orienting to day and time. I feel competent in conversation about the weather, upcoming holidays, days of the week, living in Maine, etc. I feel like this will be good and help understand the patient as a whole rather than looking for hard numbers. 

There are other hospital and community supports for the aging population in the area. The only thing I can think of is the personal experience I had at Partners for World Health packaging briefs given to anyone in the community, particularly elders who needed them. Lexi and I spent hours sorting these. My grandmother goes to “bone builders” which essentially just keeps her engaged and social in an active way at the Senior Center in her town.