Nurses' usage of validated tools to assess for delirium in general acute care settings: A scoping review protocol.

Background: Delirium is an acute, neuropsychiatric syndrome, characterized by an altered mental state. It often affects hospital in-patients and is associated with an increased risk of mortality, dementia, and functional decline. Delirium can be detected through the use of validated assessment tools, administered by nurses, and early detection is associated with improved outcomes for patients. However, validated tools are infrequently utilised and cases of delirium are frequently missed. A greater understanding of nurses' use of validated delirium assessment tools is needed in order to reduce the number of missed cases.

Objectives: The aim of this scoping review is to identify how validated assessment tools are used by nurses in general acute care settings to assess for delirium and identify the barriers and enablers for said tools' use.

Methods: This scoping review will be conducted in accordance with the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for scoping reviews. The databases CINAHL, PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus will be searched using a search strategy. Grey literature will also be searched using Google Scholar and BASE. Results will be uploaded to Covidence where the sources will be screened for relevance. Data from relevant sources will be extracted using a data extraction tool.

Results: The PRISMA-ScR flow diagram will present the results of the search. Results will be mapped descriptively and presented as both tabulated results and a narrative summary.

Conclusion: This protocol outlines the structure of a scoping review that will analyse the existing literature surrounding nurses use of validated delirium assessment tools. This review aims to map the evidence of delirium assessment tool utilisation by nurses and identify any barriers to usage. This will support future researchers and policy makers in the improvement of delirium assessment in acute care settings.