In a busy hospital setting, communication is essential between patients, care partners and the care team. Through years of quality improvement research at Hamilton Health Sciences, the Delirium Research Group has  developed a bedside communication tool to help improve care for older adults. A key goal of the tool was to prevent delirium, a common complication of hospitalization among older adults. The communication tool was developed by a multidisciplinary team of geriatricians, clinical nurse specialists, and nurse educators. The tool has been tested and redesigned iteratively after numerous rounds of feedback by patients, care partners, nurses, health care aides, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and speech language pathologists. The Delirium Research Group have also implemented custom versions in orthopedic, general medical and hematology-oncology wards.

My Care Board^© features:

• Evidence-based interventions for the prevention of delirium
• Person-centred and plain language, designed to be understood by patients and care partners
• Active language, which prompts health care providers to carry out best practices
• Colours and fonts designed for readability with high contrast
• An option to modify the tool to suit the needs of different care units
• A mix of structured elements and free space for individual needs
• A poster in holder design that allows updating the contents of the tool at lower cost

Publication(s) related to the tool:

Reppas-Rindlisbacher C, Siddhpuria S, Wong EKC, Lee J, Gabor C, Curkovic A, Khalili Y, Mavrak C, de Freitas SA, Eshak K, Patterson C. Implementation of a multicomponent intervention sign to reduce delirium in orthopaedic inpatients (MIND-ORIENT): a quality improvement project. BMJ Open Quality. 2021 Jan;10(1):e001186.

How to request the use or modification of this tool for your hospital setting

The Delirium Research Group have copyrighted this tool to ensure evidence-based and high-quality implementation. Although the tool is free to use, we kindly ask prospective users to contact the Delirium Research Group. They can offer implementation advice as well as free modification services.