UTI Nursing Care Plan
Creating a UTI Nursing Care Plan is an essential aspect of comprehensive care for patients. Discover the ins and outs of what to include in your plans with this guide!
Fact Checked by RJ Gumban.
What is a UTI Nursing Care Plan Template?
Urinary tract infections (UTIs) stem from pathogenic microorganisms that invade the kidney, bladder, or urethra. This infection is identified by significant bacteriuria paired with symptoms of cystitis or pyelonephritis, contributing to a substantial portion of emergency department visits, with around 20% of women having experienced at least one UTI (Brusch & Stuart, 2023).
Predominantly, UTIs are traced back to Escherichia coli (E. coli), a bacterium typically found in the digestive system. E. coli is responsible for most cases of uncomplicated cystitis. Typically, the body clears urinary tract-invading bacteria before symptoms emerge, but in some instances, these bacteria surpass the body's natural defenses, leading to infection. Uropathogenic bacteria, a subset of fecal flora, possess specific traits that encourage adhesion, growth, and resistance against the body's defenses, enabling the development of urinary tract infections (Brusch & Stuart, 2023).
UTIs are usually categorized as upper or lower urinary tract infections. Urethritis indicates an infection in the urethra, cystitis in the bladder, and pyelonephritis involves bacteria in the kidneys. Uncomplicated UTIs are typically confined to the bladder. Common symptoms include, but aren’t limited to:
- Dysuria
- Urinary urgency and frequency
- Bladder fullness
- Lower abdominal discomfort
- Suprapubic and flank tenderness
- Bloody urine
- Fever
- Chills
- Malaise
Nursing care plans for UTIs aim to alleviate pain, educate patients on preventive measures and treatment, and manage potential complications. The nurse focuses on ensuring appropriate treatment, follow-up care, and preventive measures to address the infection and reduce the likelihood of future occurrences.
Printable UTI Nursing Care Plan Template PDF
Manage UTIs to produce higher outcomes with our free UTI Nursing Care Plan Template
How does it work?
Step One: Gather your resources
UTI 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 “ UTI 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 with a UTI, utilizing the UTI nursing care plan template to ensure all goals of care are met is seamless and 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 and acts as a scaffolding to ensure goals of care are met, and the next steps are recorded for future reference or for distribution to other healthcare specialists who are part of the patient's care team.
Step Three: Store the chart securely
After reviewing the UTI 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.
UTI Nursing Care Plan example (sample)
Eager to utilize this essential care planning tool? Acquire a free, downloadable, and printable UTI 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 the goals of care for patients diagnosed with a UTI. It includes dedicated sections for evaluation and interventions and a section for symptom tracking.
Secure your copy by either previewing the sample below or clicking the "Download Example PDF" button.
Download UTI Nursing Care Plan example PDF
When would you use this template?
A UTI nursing care plan is utilized when a patient is diagnosed with or at risk of developing a urinary tract infection. Below are some common scenarios where this useful plan may be created:
Hospitalized patients
Individuals admitted to hospitals, especially older adults, individuals with catheters, or those with compromised immune systems, are at higher risk of developing UTIs due to prolonged immobility or medical interventions.
Long-Term care facilities
Residents in nursing homes or long-term care facilities often face an increased risk of UTIs due to various factors like age, reduced mobility, catheter use, and underlying health conditions.
Community settings
Outpatients diagnosed with a UTI may also require a care plan, especially if the infection is recurrent or severe. In such cases, nursing care at home or in outpatient clinics is crucial for proper management.
Special populations
Certain groups, such as pregnant women, individuals with structural abnormalities in the urinary tract, or those with conditions compromising their immune system, may need specialized care plans tailored to their specific needs.
Post-surgical care
Patients who have undergone urological procedures or surgeries involving the urinary tract may require a care plan to prevent postoperative UTIs and manage any infections that occur.
The care plan aims to address the unique needs of each patient, focusing on treatment, symptom management, prevention of complications, and patient education to reduce the risk of recurrent UTIs. Regular monitoring and follow-ups are essential components of this care plan to ensure proper recovery, reduce the risk of developing further issues, and prevent future occurrences.
What do the Results mean?
Once an assessment has been carried out to identify and diagnose infection, a UTI-specific nursing care plan can assist in further assessment and interventions for meeting the patient's care goals. Common results and their respective care plans are outlined below:
Acute pain
Often, patients with a UTI describe a burning sensation paired with a sense of urgency and frequency to void. This pain is related to the disease and inflammatory processes and is linked to the infection. The patient may experience pain in their pelvis, dysuria, frequency, and burning with urination. In this situation, the expected outcomes from a care plan involve reduced pelvic pain along with relief from burning and pain during urination.
Deficit fluid volume
A common consequence of the patient's symptoms relating to a UTI, deficient fluid volume, may be evidenced by an altered mental status, hypotension, decreased urine output, increased body temperature, and thirst. Goals of care within a nursing plan would address the patient's blood pressure, temperature, pulse rate, and oxygen saturation. Ensuring all these vitals remain within a normal range. Another key expected outcome is the patient's urine output sitting at 0.5 ml/kg/hr or higher.
Disturbed sleep pattern
Because the infection causes an array of uncomfortable symptoms, such as dysuria and increased urgency, the patient may experience disrupted sleep patterns, which can be detrimental to health and healing. From a nursing care plan's expected outcomes, a patient's goals of care are met when they verbalize an improved sleeping pattern and reach a satisfactory level of rest and sleep. A key goal within this plan is to see the reduced need to wake more than once in the night to urinate.
Hyperthermia
This serious side effect requires a nursing care plan to help mitigate elevated temperature, chills, and shivering. This particular aspect of a UTI care plan may come into effect should the patient display flushed skin, lethargy, tachycardia, chills, and a temperature over 38.0 C /100.4 F. By instigating this chart, expected outcomes are that the patient maintains a body temperature within the normal limits and that the patient experiences no complications from an increased temperature, such as dehydration, chills, and potential seizures.
Impaired urinary elimination
A UTI may cause irregular urinary patterns through symptoms such as urinary retention, urgency, frequency, and nocturia. This potential anatomical dysfunction may be displayed through urinary incontinence and frequency, leading to a care plan goal of having the patient report the ability to void without any pain or urgency. Another goal of care is that the patient will hold a normal urine output volume and void no more frequently than once every two hours.
Why use Carepatron as Your UTI Nursing Care Plan app?
Selecting Carepatron as your preferred application for creating a UTI nursing care plan 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 UTI 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
Bennett, N. J., Johnson, S. A., Richards, M. J., Smith, M. A., & Worth, L. J. (2016). Infections in Australian Aged-Care Facilities: Evaluating the Impact of Revised McGeer Criteria for Surveillance of Urinary Tract Infections. Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, 37(5), 610–612. https://doi.org/10.1017/ice.2016.7
Jump, R. L. P., Crnich, C. J., Mody, L., Bradley, S. F., Nicolle, L. E., & Yoshikawa, T. T. (2018). Infectious Diseases in Older Adults of Long-Term Care Facilities: Update on Approach to Diagnosis and Management. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 66(4), 789–803. https://doi.org/10.1111/jgs.15248
Rowe, T. A., & Juthani-Mehta, M. (2013). Urinary tract infection in older adults. Aging Health, 9(5), 519–528. https://doi.org/10.2217/ahe.13.38
Ryan, S., Gillespie, E., & Stuart, R. L. (2018). Urinary tract infection surveillance in residential aged care. American Journal of Infection Control, 46(1), 67–72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2017.07.002
Szweda, H., & Jóźwik, M. (2016). Urinary tract infections during pregnancy - an updated overview. Developmental Period Medicine, 20(4), 263–272. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28216479/
Commonly asked questions
To create a comprehensive nursing care plan for UTI 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 with a UTI to track, monitor, and plan all interventions both by healthcare professionals and the patient themselves.
UTI 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 UTI 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 own self-management.
