Effectiveness of multi-factorial interventions in reducing post-operative delirium among elderly patients with hip fracture

Abstract

According to the World Health Organisation, hip fracture among elderly people is a global public health problem, with 1.7 million cases worldwide in 1991, a figure due to the aging population and believed likely to increase. Post-operative delirium is a common complication following hip-fracture surgery, and occurs in 25% to 65% of cases (Gustafson 1988). It not only affects the rehabilitation progress of the elderly, but also prolongs hospitalisation, which in turn increases the financial burden on the government.

There are different ways of managing post-operative delirium among the elderly, including pharmacological and multifactorial interventions and education programmes. However, there is no standard nursing management of post-operative delirium in Hong Kong, and this affects both patient care and nursing standards. According to the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (2011), multifactorial intervention is cost-effective and an effective method of reducing postoperative delirium, where nurses play an important role as gatekeepers, and thus allow such intervention to be introduced into the clinical setting. With this in mind, translational nursing research was performed by a review of four studies, to introduce the concept of multifactorial intervention to nurses, to formulate the implementation for the intervention, and finally to obtain feedback from colleagues.