Improving the Detection, Assessment, Management and Prevention of Delirium in Hospices (the DAMPen-D study): protocol for a co-design and feasibility study of a flexible and scalable implementation strategy to deliver guideline-adherent delirium care

INTRODUCTION: Delirium is a complex condition in which altered mental state and cognition causes severe distress and poor clinical outcomes for patients and families, anxiety and stress for the health professionals and support staff providing care, and higher care costs. Hospice patients are at high risk of developing delirium, but there is significant variation in care delivery. The primary objective of this study is to demonstrate the feasibility of an implementation strategy (designed to help deliver good practice delirium guidelines), participant recruitment and data collection. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Three work packages in three hospices in the UK with public involvement in codesign, study management and stakeholder groups: (1) experience-based codesign to adapt an existing theoretically-informed implementation strategy (Creating Learning Environments for Compassionate Care (CLECC)) to implement delirium guidelines in hospices; (2) feasibility study to explore ability to collect demographic, diagnostic and delirium management data from clinical records (n=300), explanatory process data (number of staff engaged in CLECC activities and reasons for non-engagement) and cost data (staff and volunteer hours and pay-grades engaged in implementation activities) and (3) realist process evaluation to assess the acceptability and flexibility of the implementation strategy (preimplementation and postimplementation surveys with hospice staff and management, n=30 at each time point; interviews with hospice staff and management, n=15). Descriptive statistics, rapid thematic analysis and a realist logic of analysis will be used be used to analyse quantitative and qualitative data, as appropriate. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval obtained: Hull York Medical School Ethics Committee (Ref 21/23), Health Research Authority Research Ethics Committee Wales REC7 (Ref 21/WA/0180) and Health Research Authority Confidentiality Advisory Group (Ref 21/CAG/0071). Written informed consent will be obtained from interview participants. A results paper will be submitted to an open access peer-reviewed journal and a lay summary shared with study site staff and stakeholders. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN55416525.