| Meako et al. 2011, USA [24] | Examine Orthopaedic nurses’ basic knowledge about delirium and test the effectiveness of 1 hour teaching session about it | -Orthopaedic RNs have a lack in understanding delirium -The one hour educational session is effective to raise RNs awareness | Strengths Quasi-experimental design allowed accuracy in findings and validation. Weaknesses The study was liable to participants drop out. |
| Steeg et al. 2015, Netherlands [25] | Test the effectiveness of an e-learning course on nurses’ delirium knowledge and explore their knowledge about delirium, | -Test scores on the final knowledge test were significantly higher than -At baseline, nursing staff had the most difficulty with questions related to the definition of delirium: what are its symptoms, course, consequences and which patients are at risk | Strengths Randomisation minimised sample bias Weaknesses Pre and post design is open to respondent attrition. |
| Rice et al. 2014, south-eastern, USA [26] | Increase recognising delirium clinical reasoning for older adults in nurses, and provide clinical reasoning processes according to participants to validate these interventions | -It was difficult for nurses to distinguish acute versus chronic mental status changes, especially in dementia patients -The nurses’ use of intuitive assessment of patients involved immediate knowledge that was not mediated through rational and analytical processes -Nurses recognise that delirious patients require different care and that being confused altered their prognosis | Strengths The study had varied sample from different wards The study used validated tools Weaknesses The use of interviews exposed it to respondent bias |