Caring for the confused geriatric surgical patient

Postoperative confusion in elderly patients is generally a temporary and reversible condition. The causes and contributing factors are numerous. The number of elderly surgical patients will continue to increase as this age group continues to grow. Our role as nurses is to provide the care that will not only focus on early recognition, assessment, and treatment of postoperative confusion, but will also recognize factors that preoperatively place a patient at increased risk and provide care that will prevent or minimize postoperative confusion.