UTI
A big issue we see in some older adults is that of a UTI. A UTI is when when there is an infection or inflammation of the urinary tract. The most common culprit for UTI's caused by infection is that of E.coli. Some of our more high risk groups include females, diabetes patients, pregnancy, and those with catheters. The S/S we want to be on lookout for are signs of infection, fever and chills, dysuria, urgency and elevated WBC's(over 10,000). A common sign very unique to the elderly population is confusion. Our treatment of this is very broad. We want to give them the prescribed antibiotic and all other meds. We also want to encourage our patient to get 3000mL of fluid daily. Some teaching tools vital to our UTI patients is to encourage voiding when the need is present, getting lots of fluids, and teaching about proper perineal cleaning particularly for our elderly women. For us as nurses we need to ensure that we clean catheters very well and take them out as soon as possible.