nursing care plan for a patient with virus vs bacterial meningitis

Nurses General Nursing

Published

I am trying to come up with a good nursing care plan for my patient who presents with fever and altered mental statusa and is been treated with ATB and antiinfective meds,vitals are ok,so what do you think would be a priority care plan for this patient,I managed to come up with 2 diagnosis:1)acute pain r/t meningeal irritation, 2) risk for infection transmission r/t contagiuos nature of organism.Please help!!!!

Doesn't the patient have a fever? I do believe there's a nursing diagnosis for that.

What evidence of pain do you have?

Is someone with an altered mental status at risk for injury?

:)

yes the patient came in with fever and altered mental status and I can't use those as priority becos my teacher might think those are not high priority,hope you understand.

Not really, altered mental status and fever are always high priority :confused:

(sort of tied together.... https://allnurses.com/forums/f198/nursing-care-plan-patient-meningitis-343777.html )

They and spreading the infection are the highest. Why wouldn't your teacher agree?

Think Maslow - physiological. Fever, a little mentally off, injuries, infectious.

Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

priority is usually done by maslow's hierarchy of needs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs)

  1. acute pain r/t meningeal irritation (actual physiological need for comfort)
  2. risk for infection transmission r/t contagious nature of organism (anticipated physiological need for metabologic regulation)

just something to think about. . .meningitis is never a primary disease. it is a secondary infection that has migrated from somewhere else, often an infection in the ears or the respiratory track. what other infection was going on in this patient just before the meningitis appeared. was that infection resolved, or is it still being treated? also, nuchal rigidity is the cardinal sign and symptom of meningitis, bacterial or viral. how are you addressing this symptom and problem? how is the patient responding to it psychologically?

Well this patient came in just when she was feeling much better but her admitting diagnosis was fever and altered mental status after labs and diagnostics test(lumber puncture,x ray and CT scan) they resulted in nothing but she was treated with ATB and also IV fluids all pushed thru a PCVC.Her vitals her bp 146/86,p 88,RR 18 POX 96% is denies any pain even though when she was admitted she complained of HA and I have to assess her on her 6th day of admission so obviously she was much improved so I am just feeding out of information I got from the Dr's note,she is alert & orientedX2 earlier on but was improved by day 6,so I don't really have much to go with since my patients condition is improved and she was discharged after her completion of her ATB.Hope this helps

I am trying to come up with a good nursing care plan for my patient who presents with fever and altered mental statusa and is been treated with ATB and antiinfective meds,vitals are ok,so what do you think would be a priority care plan for this patient,I managed to come up with 2 diagnosis:1)acute pain r/t meningeal irritation, 2) risk for infection transmission r/t contagiuos nature of organism.Please help!!!!

All I know is bacterial meningitis is potentially lethal whereas viral meningitis isn't so necessarily. You may have to check with an MD and go back into some of your books. This is too serious for guessing.

Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

The lumbar puncture is the definitive test that is done to verify a diagnosis of meningitis. The fact that nothing was found means it was probably viral. Since she was being discharged, if you need another diagnosis, go for a teaching one: Deficient Knowledge, discharge needs.

Specializes in Med/Surg, Home Health.

a high temp can cause risk for fluid volume deficit

pain

risk for injury due to the altered mental status

Good luck. I sure dont miss doing those careplans!

So I also have a c-section pt. and am having trouble with my goals and interventions. My diagnosis is acute pain. All I can think of for the goal is pain level decreases to 4 by the end of the shift. Does anyone else have any ideas? Oh also what would be considered objective data for this? Seeing that the pt. is in pain? Thanks

priority is usually done by maslow's hierarchy of needs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs)

  1. acute pain r/t meningeal irritation (actual physiological need for comfort)
  2. risk for infection transmission r/t contagious nature of organism (anticipated physiological need for metabologic regulation)

just something to think about. . .meningitis is never a primary disease. it is a secondary infection that has migrated from somewhere else, often an infection in the ears or the respiratory track. what other infection was going on in this patient just before the meningitis appeared. was that infection resolved, or is it still being treated? also, nuchal rigidity is the cardinal sign and symptom of meningitis, bacterial or viral. how are you addressing this symptom and problem? how is the patient responding to it psychologically?

bingo!

i had viral meningitis, and it was nasty. my head was splitting, i wanted no one or nothing to come near me. any stimuli is too much. you better remember to turn the lights off or very low when you are done assessing your pt. no or very low noise. visitors? no thanks! morphine and i were best friends for a couple days!

isolation gown/mask/glove yourself. have your pt wear a mask (reverse isolation) when you're in the room and keep them clean. primary transmission mode is saliva/sputum/nasal mucus/fecal matter. don't expect them to be able to answer heavy duty questions other than pain scale for a few days.

i didn't feel like eating, so find out what kinds of fluids are best tolerated (water, juice, soda, ensure, whatever) and keep it coming!

+ Add a Comment