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Background: Critically ill patients who develop delirium experience longer stays in intensive care as well as increased morbidity and mortality. Assessing a patient’s level of delirium also requires assessment of the level of consciousness, since changes in the latter are signs of delirium. The aim of this questionnaire was to highlight clinical practice in respect of assessing sedation and symptoms of delirium in intensive care patients. Based on the results received, various tools for assessing sedation are discussed. Method: In May 2009 the questionnaire was issued via email to 46 intensive care units caring for ventilated adult patients. An intensive care nurse with daily patient contact was asked to describe the unit’s practice in respect of sedation and delirium assessment tools in adult patients. Results: The questionnaires show that patients’ level of sedation is almost always assessed on Danish intensive care units. There was no consensus on which tool was used to assess sedation, the frequency of assessment, or on which patient groups such tools are used. The field is clinically relevant since recent studies suggest that sedation, and in particular over-sedation, has a number of adverse effects. Assessment of delirium is performed rarely, and rarely systematically. Only five units assessed patients systematically using CAM-ICU. Less than half of the units have a protocol for treatment of delirium.

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