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AIMS AND OBJECTIVES To evaluate the usefulness of comprehensive nursing assessment as a strategy for determining the risk of delirium in older in-patients from a model of care needs based on variables easily measured by nurses. BACKGROUND There are many scales of assessment and prediction of risk of delirium, but they are little known and infrequently used by professionals. Recognition of delirium by doctors and nurses continues to be limited. DESIGN AND METHODS A case-control study. A specific form of data collection was designed to include the risk factors for delirium commonly identified in the literature and the care needs evaluated from the comprehensive nursing assessment based on the Virginia Henderson model of care needs. We studied 454 in-patient units in a basic general hospital. Data were collected from a review of the records of patients' electronic clinical history. RESULTS The areas of care that were significant in patients with delirium were dyspnoea, problems with nutrition, elimination, mobility, rest and sleep, self-care, physical safety, communication and relationships. The specific risk factors identified as independent predictors were as follows: age, urinary incontinence, urinary catheter, alcohol abuse, previous history of dementia, being able to get out of bed/not being at rest, habitual insomnia and history of social risk. CONCLUSIONS Comprehensive nursing assessment is a valid and consistent strategy with a multifactorial model of delirium, which enables the personalised risk assessment necessary to define a plan of care with specific interventions for each patient to be made. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE The identification of the risk of delirium is particularly important in the context of prevention. In a model of care based on needs, nursing assessment is a useful component in the risk assessment of delirium and one that is necessary for developing an individualised care regime.