Nursing Diagnosis Help!!

Published

What is a good nursing diagnosis for an infected mediport?

Up Vote Up Vote ×

The same ones as for any type of infection... check for those listed among the ones for IV access devices.

This is an entry point to the entire blood stream..... so, what are the issues????

:)

Up Vote Up Vote ×

XTXRN, I did look for infections of IV access sites, but unfortunatley in my book, there weren't any. But I appreciate the help. And thank you Esme12!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

please, all students, realize that nursing diagnoses are not to be found in some mythological chart with the first column being medical diagnoses and the second giving nursing ones, with the implication that nursing diagnoses are somehow derivative, secondary, or subordinate. nothing could be farther from the truth.

medical diagnoses are derived from medical assessments-- diagnostic imaging, laboratory studies, pathology analyses, and the like. this is not to say that nursing diagnosis doesn't use the same information, so read on.

nursing diagnoses are derived from nursing assessments, not medical ones. so to make a nursing diagnosis, a nursing assessment has to occur. for that, well, you need to either examine the patient and associated data yourself, or (if you're planning care ahead of time before you've seen the patient or chart) find out about the usual presentation and usual nursing care for a given patient.

medical diagnoses, when accurate, can be supporting documentation for a nursing diagnosis, for example, "activity intolerance related to (because the patient has) congestive heart failure/duchenne's muscular dystrophy/chronic pulmonary insufficiency/amputation with leg prosthesis." however, your faculty will then ask you how you know. this is the dread (and often misunderstood) "as evidenced by."

in the case of activity intolerance, how have you been able to make that diagnosis? you will likely have observed something like, "chest pain during physical activity/inability to walk >25 feet due to fatigue/inability to complete am care without frequent rest periods/shortness of breath at rest with desaturation to spo2 85% with turning in bed."

i hope this is helpful to you who are just starting out in this wonderful profession. it's got a great body of knowledge waiting out there to help you do well for and by your patients, and you do need to understand its processes.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

GrnTea, thank you for the information. I agree with you. I was only looking for a diagnosis because that was literally all the information that the pt had at the time. The pt was a brand new admit right before I came in for data collection. I was to have a care plan by the next morning with absolutely no info to go by. There were no labs, assessments, or paperwork on the pt at the moment. I did assess her but all that she was experiencing was the infection. Thank you for your input. I was able to get more info on the pt today and I figured out something more appropriate.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

OK.

Try looking at how it got infected (poor compliance with taking care of it, immunosupression, exposure to infection from someone else, etc). They can be "potential for" until you get more info.... care plans are fluid- and change at the drop of a hat- so showing you're thinking about possible issue that lead to this may help.

Prevention of sepsis.

Potential removal/replacement of port.

Maintaining dressing/cleansing per orders....and assessing for changes in skin integrity (skin integrity is already compromised every time the port is accessed).

There are probably many more, but it's 2:30 a.m. and my brain just had a serious fart :D

:brnfrt:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion