The resource is part of the Delirium Health Professionals Ireland (DelHPIre) project, an all-Ireland research initiative designed to improve delirium recognition, management, and prevention across various healthcare professions.

Delirium, a condition characterised by rapid deterioration of mental function due to medical disorders or environmental changes, is common in settings such as hospitals and nursing homes. However, its symptoms can often be mistaken for other conditions like dementia, making early detection crucial for improving patient outcomes.

The newly launched e-resource is designed to raise awareness of delirium among students in a variety of healthcare fields, including medicine, nursing, pharmacy, occupational therapy, social work, and dietetics. The comprehensive online resource provides a range of information on delirium, including assessment, management, prevention and the provision of multidisciplinary person-centred holistic care to people with delirium. This is supplemented by video, audio, and interactive activities.

Co-designed by researchers and students from both University of Limerick and Queen’s University Belfast, this project was funded by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) under the North-South Research Programme.

The Principal Investigators on the DelHPIre project are Dr Gary Mitchell MBE, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Queen’s University Belfast and Professor Alice Coffey, School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Limerick.

Commenting on the significance of this work, Dr Gary Mitchell said: “This project and the e-resource highlight the importance of cross-border collaboration in education. By making high-quality, research-informed materials accessible, they support educators and students across Ireland and Northern Ireland. The e-resource is already being integrated into curricula in Northern Ireland, ensuring its impact on teaching and learning. This work reflects our shared commitment to being stronger together as researchers, educators, and practitioners.”

Professor Coffey added: “This resource has the potential to shape the provision of undergraduate delirium education across the island of Ireland. Throughout the project, we have encouraged the shared and collective voice of our students, who will use and benefit from this resource. The use of co-design methodology ensured that the voice of the end-users, health professional students, was key in informing the development of the learning resource.”

Students who participated in the development of the resource have shared their experiences and insights.

Karen Mulvihill, student of pharmacy from Queens University Belfast explained how the resource has informed her own work: “This project showed the impact and the importance of multi-disciplinary input at an educational level. As my background is in pharmacy, I have limited experience working in multi-disciplinary teams in comparison with medicine, nursing and allied health students who are on the front line with patients. The e-resource is comprehensive, easy to follow, and it shows that even simple measures can have a massive difference.”

Sinead Kirby, student of mental health nursing at UL said: “I benefitted from getting a deeper understanding of what delirium is, the importance of the prevention, and the non-pharmacological interventions that we can do, not just the medications. I enjoyed the co-design and collaboration between the two universities and getting to know the students from all the different disciplines during the workshops. Our voices and opinions were heard, and we felt like we all had an important part to play in caring for a person with delirium.”

The multidisciplinary delirium e-resource for healthcare professional students can be accessed here.

Dr Gary Mitchell

Reader (Education), School of Nursing and Midwifery

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