Question regarding Nursing Diagnosis

[Jill0216]

I just have a quick question regarding a NANDA nursing diagnosis for my patient that I am creating a care plan for. This patient has a severe infection of an abscessed wound on her lower back. She is in the hospital receiving three different types of antibiotics for this infection. The wound is packed with gauze, is very painful, and it has purulent drainage. I looked at the NANDA diagnoses, and I saw the diagnosis "at risk for infection" but this patient has active infection. What do you think is the best nursing diagnosis for this patient regarding the infection. I was thinking possibly using "impaired tissue integrity" or "impaired skin integrity" but these do not seem to fit exactly. Thanks for your input!

[VickyRN, MSN, DNP, RN]

In situations like this, there is a risk for a higher order of infection (sepsis). So one possible nursing dx for this patient might be:

Risk for Infection (Septicemia) r/t skin wound area on back with collection of pus formed by tissue disintegration and surrounded by area of inflammation

Another one might be:

Risk for Neurologic Injury r/t possible blood infection spreading to central nervous system (meningitis) secondary to severe wound infection