Fluid Volume Deficit Nursing Care Plan
Know the ins and outs of a comprehensive fluid volume deficit nursing care plan through this guide and offer superior care with the implementation of the free and downloadable nursing care plan template!
Fact Checked by RJ Gumban.
What is a Fluid Volume Deficit Nursing Care Plan Template?
Fluid volume deficit, also known as hypovolemia, refers to insufficient fluid in the body, specifically within the vascular system. It occurs when there is an excessive loss of fluids or inadequate intake, leading to a decrease in circulating blood volume. This deficit disrupts the balance between the body's fluid input and output, impacting its ability to function optimally. Several causes contribute to fluid volume deficit.
Dehydration resulting from diarrhea, vomiting, excessive sweating, or inadequate fluid intake is a common factor. Additionally, conditions such as bleeding, severe burns, diabetes, and certain medications can lead to significant fluid losses, exacerbating the deficit. This condition may present in very young children or infants and may be evidenced by crying without tears, high fevers, irritability, sunken eyes, and drowsiness.
The consequences of fluid volume deficit can be severe. It affects the body's ability to maintain normal blood pressure, impairing circulation and delivery of oxygen and nutrients to tissues and organs. This condition can result in dizziness, rapid heart rate, low blood pressure, reduced urine output, dry mucous membranes, and altered mental status. Left untreated, severe hypovolemia can lead to shock, organ failure, and life-threatening complications.
Creating a nursing care plan for fluid volume deficit is essential for several reasons as it helps implement the stabilization of the patient, leads the assessment and diagnostic process, can chart for fluid replacement, and helps mitigate further complications. Implementing this particular nursing care plan plays a pivotal role in ensuring patient well-being and a swift recovery.
Printable Fluid Volume Deficit Nursing Care Plan
Enhance your care with our free Fluid Volume Deficit Nursing Care Plan PDF
How does it work?
Step One: Gather your resources
Fluid volume deficit nursing care plans are a valuable resource and essential to keep on hand. Make sure that you have a copy of the free printable PDF when the need arises by either clicking the “Download Template” or “Use Template” button or by searching “fluid volume deficit nursing care plan” on Carepatron’s template library’s search bar on the website or app.
Step Two: Collate essential information
Once the patient has been diagnosed and assessed for fluid volume deficit, utilizing this nursing care plan template to ensure all goals of care are met is seamless. The document is easily accessible to relevant parties via Carepatron's centralized workspace.
Assessment, symptom management, and interventions can be collated within the single care plan and safely stored on a single database. The care plan allows for individualized treatment options. It acts as a scaffolding to ensure goals of care are met, and the next steps are recorded for future reference or distribution to other healthcare specialists who are part of the patient's care team.
Step Three: Store the chart securely
After reviewing the fluid volume deficit nursing care plan and creating a viable and individualized plan for the patient, you need to secure the plan so that access is only granted to relevant parties.
Ensure this through Carepatrons HIPAA-compliant free patient records software. Here, all relevant medical records can be safely stored and collated for ease and security.
Fluid Volume Deficit Nursing Care Plan example (sample)
Eager to utilize this essential care planning tool? Acquire a free, downloadable, and printable fluid volume deficit nursing care plan template PDF that comes pre-filled with fictional data to help you confidently track your patient's needs or act as an educational tool.
Our crafted sample template is designed to assist you in efficiently utilizing the chart and evaluating care goals for patients with a deficit fluid volume. It includes dedicated sections for evaluation, interventions, and symptom tracking.
Secure your copy by either previewing the sample below or clicking the "Download Example PDF" button.
Download our Fluid Volume Deficit Nursing Care Plan example PDF
When would you use this template?
A fluid volume deficit nursing care plan is used when a patient experiences a depletion of bodily fluids, leading to a decrease in circulating blood volume. This deficit can result from various conditions or situations, including:
- Dehydration: Often due to inadequate intake of fluids, excessive fluid loss from vomiting, diarrhea, or excessive sweating.
- Hemorrhage or blood loss: Significant bleeding, whether from trauma, surgery, or internal bleeding, can lead to a rapid decrease in blood volume and subsequent fluid deficit.
- Burns: Extensive burns can cause fluid shifts, leading to dehydration and decreased circulating blood volume.
- Certain medical conditions: Conditions such as diabetes insipidus, diabetes mellitus, or adrenal insufficiency can result in increased urination, leading to fluid loss and subsequent deficits.
- Gastrointestinal disorders: Persistent vomiting, diarrhea, or conditions like intestinal obstruction can lead to significant fluid losses.
- Inadequate fluid intake: Patients who are unable to drink fluids due to various reasons, such as being unconscious, experiencing dysphagia, or being on restricted fluid intake orders.
What do the results mean?
Assessment
The initial phase of nursing care involves conducting a comprehensive nursing assessment and encompasses collecting physical, psychosocial, emotional, and diagnostic information for appropriate interventions. Assessments for volume deficit may include the following:
- Perform a comprehensive head-to-toe evaluation: This enables the nurse to assess the entirety of the patient, integrating all gathered data to inform clinical decisions and aid in pinpointing the underlying cause of dehydration.
- Evaluate fluid intake and output: This method provides the nurse with objective data that will help in the determination of the patient's net fluid loss.
- Monitor vital signs: Deviations in vital signs, such as tachycardia or hypotension, might indicate dehydration.
- Review laboratory findings: Abnormal blood work, including electrolyte imbalances or renal function irregularities, might signify dehydration.
- Assess skin elasticity: Diminished skin turgor could signify dehydration.
- Examine urine color and concentration: Dark, concentrated urine might indicate dehydration, with a suggested hourly urine output of at least 30mL.
- Listen to cardiac sounds: Severe dehydration may produce abnormal cardiac sounds, potentially leading to dysrhythmias.
- Evaluate cardiac rhythm: Severe dehydration and concurrent electrolyte imbalances may contribute to the development of dysrhythmias.
- Evaluate mental status: Profound dehydration might lead to alterations in mental status.
Intervention
Nursing care and interventions are pivotal in facilitating the patient's recovery from fluid volume deficit. Noting the interventions taken and the success of each intervention is key for a comprehensive care plan. Below are some of the key interventions which nurses may take in response to their assessment:
- Encourage or prompt the patient regarding oral fluid intake: Aging can diminish the sensation of thirst; reminders can aid in sustaining fluid intake, even when not feeling thirsty.
- Provide intravenous hydration if necessary: Severe dehydration or inability to orally consume fluids may necessitate IV hydration to maintain optimal hydration levels.
- Educate the patient and family on potential causes of dehydration: Informing patients enhances comprehension of the diagnosis and empowers them with preventive measures against future dehydration episodes.
- Administer electrolyte replacements as prescribed: Dehydration can result in electrolyte imbalances, warranting vigilant monitoring and supplemental replacements as required.
- Instruct the patient and family on monitoring fluid intake and output: Equipping the patients with this knowledge post-discharge ensures they maintain adequate hydration levels.
- Conduct daily patient weight assessments: Regular weigh-ins enable easy monitoring for potential fluid overload during the rehydration process.
- Educate the patient on the significance of maintaining proper hydration and nutrition consistently: This instruction promotes patient independence upon discharge and instills awareness about preventing future episodes of dehydration.
Why use Carepatron as Your GI Bleed Nursing Care Plan app?
Selecting Carepatron as your preferred application for creating GI bleed nursing care plans offers numerous advantages for healthcare practitioners.
Carepatron provides a centralized workspace, allowing you to manage clinical documents and electronic patient records, set patient appointment reminders, and handle medical billing seamlessly and efficiently within the platform, eliminating the need for additional software downloads. This integrated and comprehensive approach simplifies and streamlines processes and tasks related to internal bleeding management, care, and various other activities, giving you peace of mind and allowing you to focus most of your time, attention, and effort on patient care.
Carepatron is dedicated to offering a highly efficient and productive platform for thousands of healthcare professionals, allowing you to customize tools and workflows to meet your unique needs. Additionally, it empowers practitioners and patients to manage administrative tasks such as service booking and completing paperwork. The easy sharing of essential documents and data through the app ensures a top-quality customer experience.
We strongly believe in providing radical accessibility, making our app available on any device you have at your disposal. Our portable medical dictation software simplifies clinical note-making and updates, ensuring an effortless process. With great accessibility comes great responsibility, and we prioritize the security of all notes, clinical records, results, and practitioner data by complying with global security requirements, including HIPAA, GDPR, and HITRUST.
References
Bhave, G., & Neilson, E. G. (2011). Volume Depletion Versus Dehydration: How Understanding the Difference Can Guide Therapy. American Journal of Kidney Diseases, 58(2), 302–309. https://doi.org/10.1053/j.ajkd.2011.02.395
McGee, S. (1999). Is This Patient Hypovolemic? JAMA, 281(11), 1022. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.281.11.1022
Ofei, S. Y., & Fuchs, G. J. (2019). Principles and Practice of Oral Rehydration. Current Gastroenterology Reports, 21(12). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11894-019-0734-1
Riddle, M. S. (2016, May). May 2016 - Volume 111 - Issue 5 : American Journal of Gastroenterology. Journals.lww.com. https://journals.lww.com/ajg/Fulltext/2016/05000/ACG_Clinical_Guideline__Diagnosis
Rose, B., & Post, T. (2001). Hypovolemic states. In Clinical physiology of acid-base and electrolyte disorders. (5th ed., pp. 415–449). NY: McGraw-Hill.Troeger, C., Blacker, B. F., Khalil, I. A., Rao, P. C., Cao, S., Zimsen, S. R., Albertson, S. B., Stanaway, J. D., Deshpande, A., Abebe, Z., Alvis-Guzman, N., Amare, A. T., Asgedom, S. W., Anteneh, Z. A., Antonio, C. A. T., Aremu, O., Asfaw, E. T., Atey, T. M., Atique, S., & Avokpaho, E. F. G. A. (2018). Estimates of the global, regional, and national morbidity, mortality, and aetiologies of diarrhoea in 195 countries: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016. The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 18(11), 1211–1228. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1473-3099(18)30362-1
Commonly asked questions
To create a comprehensive nursing care plan for fluid volume management, simply create a customized plan from the scaffolding provided by Carepatron and cater to the patient's needs through the key aspects of assessment, diagnosis, planning, intervention, and evaluation.
These valuable plan templates can be used at any point of the treatment journey for a patient in fluid volume deficit to track, monitor, and plan all interventions by healthcare professionals and the patient themselves.
Fluid deficit nursing care plan templates are used as a planning tool for efficient and confident care delivery. They are designed to be customized and meet the individual patient's needs.
A nurse will use this fluid volume deficit care plan to help outline treatments and planning, yet the template can be easily used and managed by any healthcare professional, even as an educational tool for the patient's self-management.
