Validation to Spanish of nursing assessment scale for early diagnosis of delirium - Nu-DESC.
Ángela María Henao Castaño, Lina María Lozano González, Luz Omaira Gómez Tovar
PMID 38589321WHAT IT FOUND
The Spanish Nu-DESC scale reliably detects suspected delirium in ICU patients, matching the gold standard CAM-ICU with high accuracy.
Nurses can use this quick screening tool on each shift to flag patients for physician confirmation.
Key findings
01The Spanish version of the Nu-DESC scale showed good agreement with the CAM-ICU gold standard, with a Cohen's Kappa of 0.788.
02The scale demonstrated high sensitivity (91.6%) and specificity (95.6%) for detecting delirium.
03Experts confirmed the scale's clarity and relevance, with a content validity index of 0.92.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study did not evaluate whether nursing staff would actually accept or consistently use the scale in practice. Validation was limited to ICU patients; it is unclear if the scale performs the same way in general hospital wards or geriatric units. The sample was drawn from a single university hospital in Bogotá, which may limit generalizability to other settings.
The easy way to misread this
Do not use the Nu-DESC score to diagnose delirium independently. The scale identifies suspicion; a score of 2 or more requires physician confirmation via a diagnostic tool like CAM-ICU before treatment is started.