Is this a nursing Diagnosis?

[IrishItalianRN]

INFECTION

I know RISK for infection is one, and I was told by my first instructor in block one of nursing school that any risk for can become an actual.

so is INFECTION a nursing diagnosis?

[onyx77]

If you wanted to go with the infection thing.......... I would use Risk for infection transmission. Seeing that meningitis is contagious.

[IrishItalianRN]

the baby was going to be discharged in a couple days so he was no longer contagious.

and all of the s/s you would see in a child with meningitis were no longer present (probably because he is getting better)

i called the instructor and she gave me a few suggestions so i decided to take her suggestion and go with interrupted family coping.

[jjjoy, LPN]

i called the instructor and she gave me a few suggestions so i decided to take her suggestion and go with interrupted family coping.

Ugh! That's nursing school for you! Here's an opportunity to learn a lot about meningitis, and the nursing care plan will focus on "interrupted family coping." While family coping DOES need to be assessed and addressed, it's rather low on the list of a working nurse's priorities. And some wonder why (some) new grads are so bad at prioritizing!!!

The student will be spending hours on this care plan for a patient that sounds like is almost ready to be discharged and in the real world would only get a small amount of attention from the nurse. The nurse can quickly assess if the patient has any worrisome symptoms, focusing on one's that would expected if the patient were to relapse.

The nurse can also quickly assess how the parents are coping and call for a social service consult if they seem at wit's end. Finally, the nurse will do any needed discharge teaching - which in the real world is pretty short and to the point, involving a few minutes of explanation and time for questions and giving the parents' some handouts.

[IrishItalianRN]

all I have to say to that jjjoy is :yelclap:

thats kind of what i was thinking when she told me i couldnt use "infection" when our teachers have always told us in the past any "risk for" can be turned into an actual. I should be focusing on not only what i can be doing for this patient NOW... but what would i do for a newly diagnosed Meningitis patient in the FUTURE...

Well said in my opinion...

[leslie :-D]

i don't think i agree with this.

for a pt being discharged to home, i think knowledge deficit (where one can incorporate s/s of meningitis), alt family process is appropriate.

it will be a tremendous learning opportunity for mom and dad to learn about the disease, residual deficits and anticipated impairments.

right now, the acuity is over, pt is 'stable' and the dxs need to address current and forthcoming concerns.

if student needs to learn about onset and sequelae of disease process, then a case should have been assigned where pt is newly admitted to hospital, presenting with..."

now that i have learned all/most of data about pt, i think current nsg dxs are appropriate.

leslie

[IrishItalianRN]

I understand what you are saying, but its really easy to write a diagnosis that im going to print out material and go talk to the parents about the disease process, refer them to groups for developmentally delayed children etc etc. In reality we have social services... people who have resources and know exactly where to refer these families.

This is all important to do... definitely.

on the flip side...

it would have been beneficial to me as well to have done work that would have helped me understand the disease process and what i would be looking for and what i would do if i saw these things.

with that said...

IM DONE with my careplan... ...

[leslie :-D]

you must be very relieved to be done.

i went so overboard on those darned things.

instead of giving the top 3 dx, i'd end up giving 30...all according to priority. :icon_roll

just keep in mind, while eager to learn from the acute care setting, much of healthcare is now focusing on community health.

so while you'd like to learn (and need to learn) the ins and outs of disease pathology, proper attn needs to be paid towards maintenance, prevention, and the use of community resources.

leslie

[IrishItalianRN]

Thank You Leslie

[slb241]

My patient had parotitis. Shouldn't the Nursing Diagnoses be Infection. Why isn't there an infection Nursing Diagnoses. Can you use the same interventions, admin. antibiotics in a Risk for Infection diagnoses? What diagnosis would I use instead of Risk for Infection for the nursing intervention admin. antibiotics?

[nursemike, ASN, RN]

Infection is a medical diagnosis, made by the doctors. Risk for Infection can be a valid Nursing Dx even when an infection is known to be present, since there can be a risk of spreading it to other sites. A good example of an intervention might be to educate the patient to finish the prescribed course of antibiotics even after symptoms abate, since that reduces the risk of developing a drug resistant infection. There are shared interventions: doctor prescribes IV antibiotic, nurse hangs them. But my instructors always liked to see the ones a nurse can do independantly. You don't need a doctor's order to encourage hand hygiene or educate. Good luck.