Optimizing Patient Outcomes: The Impact of Nursing Interventions on Length of Hospital Stay in Postoperative Delirium Management

Delirium is a significant concern in hospitalized patients, particularly among surgical patients. Delirium affects about seven million hospitalized patients annually (Hebert, 2018) and 37% of postoperative patients (Yang et al., 2020). Delirium is linked to prolonged hospital stays, higher mortality rates, and increased discharges to nursing homes or other long-term care facilities (Di Santo, 2019; Ha et al., 2018). The costs associated with delirium range from $1,555 to $23,698 per hospital stay, contributing to an annual expense of up to $152 billion (Ha et al., 2018; Mosharaf et al., 2022).