Care of the delirious patient

In spite of the fact that delirium is a common and often severe cognitive disturbance in the elderly, quite few intervention studies are performed. Descriptive studies of variable quality are much more common. For example, in hip fracture patients delirium is a common complication and the cause of nursing problems that cannot be explained by the fracture per se. Nursing and medical interventions have been published separately but only one study, the Pitea Program, has so far been known that combines nursing and medical knowledge. This program has been shown to reduce the incidence of delirium in elderly hip fracture patients.