Date of Conferral

8-7-2026

Date of Award

August 2026

Degree

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

School

Nursing

Advisor

Melanie Braswell

Abstract

Delirium is a preventable and manageable neuropsychiatric condition characterized by acute fluctuations in attention, awareness, and cognition. The burden of this acute confusion syndrome among older adults aged > 65 years is disproportionate higher, due to age-related neurocognitive vulnerabilities. Nurse-led delirium prevention interventions can reduce incidence from 70% to 20% following structured education, gaps persist in nursing knowledge around evidence-based prevention strategies. The purpose of this project was to evaluate whether a structured nursing education intervention on enhanced mobility and sensory aid optimization strategies, as components of the ABCDEF bundle, improved nursing knowledge compared to standard care practices. Nineteen registered nurses completed an 18-item pretest, followed by structured educational intervention, and an identical posttest afterwards. Descriptive statistics and a paired sample t-test compared knowledge scores across six content domains: delirium fundamentals, risk factors, validated delirium screening, ABCDEF bundle interventions, nurse-led mobility, and sensory aid optimization strategies. Pretest scores (M = 71.63, SD = 7.40) compared to posttest scores (M = 97.68, SD = 2.43) revealed a mean difference of 26.05 points; t (18) = 18.55, p < .001, with a large effect size (Cohen's d = 4.33), reflecting a 36.4% knowledge improvement. These results demonstrated that structured nursing education meaningfully increased foundational knowledge and improved bundle implementation competency. The project confirmed that targeted education on mobility and sensory aid optimization is both feasible and effective at increasing nursing knowledge and strengthening preventative nurse-led practices for older admitted patients.

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