ICU delirium is a hot topic. Wes Ely recently visited our insitution for grand rounds, he is the creator of the CAM-ICU. I research pediatric ICU delirium. There is a lot of really great research ongoing at the bench and bedside in this area. The goal is for every ICU patient to be assessed for delirium Q12hours as cchouka stated is done in their unit. Some resources for those who are interested:
Vanderbilt's website-- great educational tools and resources for adult and pediatric ICU delirium:
www.icudelirium.org
Review Article in NEJM:
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMra1208705
There was a whole supplement in Critical Care Medicine dedicated to pain, agitation and delirium guidelines:
http://journals.lww.com/ccmjournal/toc/2013/09001