Unlikely symptoms just might be pneumonia
Unlikely symptoms just might be pneumonia
An elderly man says he's "not quite himself." Would you suspect pneumonia if this was your patient's only symptom? Even if your patient doesn't have a respiratory complaint, that does not mean they do not have pneumonia, says Cheryl Webber, RN, MS, CEN, nurse manager of the ED at Tufts Medical Center in Boston.
"It has to be on your radar screen so you are thinking of it. You have to do a full assessment," she says. "It is quite common for elderly patients with changes in mental status to be diagnosed with pneumonia."
If your patient has a fever or any change in vital signs if they are hemodynamically unstable, you should consider pneumonia as a possibility, says Webber. "You want to get your baseline labs drawn and IV [intravenous] started and fluids if they can tolerate it," she says.
Recently, ED nurses cared for an 87-year-old woman with a chief complaint of confusion and disorientation. She also complained of nausea, vomiting, urinary incontinence, and abdominal pain. Her vital signs were normal, with no fever, and she had a finger stick glucose level of 130. "Her work-up revealed a left lower lobe pneumonia, and she was started on antibiotics within the four-hour limit," recalls Webber.
An elderly man says he's "not quite himself." Would you suspect pneumonia if this was your patient's only symptom? Even if your patient doesn't have a respiratory complaint, that does not mean they do not have pneumonia, says Cheryl Webber, RN, MS, CEN, nurse manager of the ED at Tufts Medical Center in Boston.Subscribe Now for Access
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