PhD conferral Mrs. Eveline L. van Velthuijsen, MSc.

Keywords: delirium, older hospital patients, daily practice

"Caring about confusion; on the daily practice of diagnosis and management of delirium in older hospitalised patients"

Delirium, also known as acute confusional state, is a complication that usually occurs in elderly people in a hospital setting and can have devastating consequences, such as prolonged hospitalisation and death. Despite the existence of national guidelines on identifying and treating delirium in the hospital, it is unclear how well this disorder is recognised and the extent to which the guidelines are followed. A research was carried out in collaboration with Maastricht UMC+ on identifying and treating delirium in older hospital patients in daily practice. This study found that the disorder was not always identified and that the guidelines were not always followed.