Nursing Considerations for Gastroenteritis in Reginald Bowen

This essay discusses nursing considerations to minimize the spread of gastroenteritis in Reginald Bowen, a 76-year-old male. It also covers health problems for the patient and appropriate nursing actions to be taken.

Reginald Bowen (Gastroenteritis) 1
Reginald Bowen (Gastroenteritis)
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Introduction
Reginald Bowen is a 76-year-old male suffering from viral gastroenteritis, a medical
condition which has among other symptoms, acute abdominal pain, vomiting and passing
loose watery stool. It is quickly spread from one patient to the other thus some
considerations should be put in place to minimize this(Durisch and Mueller, 2014). Nursing
interventions are required as the infected patient’s health also deteriorates within a short span
of time(Zarkotou et al., 2012). The patient is likely to have acute pain and high loss of body
fluids through diarrhea. Under this essay, nursing considerations to minimize the spread of
the disease will be discussed. Health problems for the patient and appropriate nursing actions
to be taken will also be a focus.
Nursing Consideration
Gastroenteritis is transmitted from hand to mouth when a noninfected person touches a
contaminated surface(Tao et al., 2013). Therefore, healthcare givers should practice aseptic
hand hygiene after handling a patient and before proceeding to attend to another(Australian
Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, 2016). This is because viral gastroenteritis
is usually spread from person to person by the fecal-oral route and by coming in contact with
contaminated environmental surfaces(Durisch and Mueller, 2014). Aseptic hand wash
involves cleaning entirely every part of one’s hands with an antiseptic soap or solution,
rinsing them and drying before and after handling a patient.
Nursing Issues and Interventions
Gastroenteritis is associated with acute abdominal pain and cramping. Inflammation in
the gastrointestinal tract makes the body immune response to release cytokines and
prostaglandins which causes vascular permeability(Ingle and Hinge Ingle, 2013). This is

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perceived by the patient as pain in the abdominal region. An important nursing diagnosis, in
this case, is acute pain related to viral infection of the gastrointestinal tract as manifested by
the patient’s verbalization of pain in the abdominal region(Hooks, 2016). A nurse should
review the factors that aggravate or alleviate the pain. This will enable the nurse to plan for
the next course of action by lessening the aggravating factors and promoting the alleviating.
Appropriate analgesics should also be administered as they alleviate pain(Gundeslioglu et al.,
2016). Other pain relief measures such as massage, if not contraindicated, should be used as
they promote comfort and alleviate the problem(Zarkotou et al., 2012). A nurse should also
instruct the patient to perform constant deep breathing exercise as it reduces pain sensation
and promote comfort. Distractive activities such as socialization and entertaining strategies
should be put in place as they relieve pain(Hooks, 2016). These activities divert the patient’s
mind away from the pain perception thus relieving the problem. The patient should verbalize
pain relief after these strategies have been put in place.
Another nursing problem associated with gastroenteritis is deficient fluid volume.
Reginald Bowen lost a lot of body fluids through vomiting and passing large amounts of
loose watery stool. This causes fluids and electrolytes volume imbalance in the body. This is
manifested by the patient in the case study having frequent thirst, diarrhea, and
lethargy(Hooks, 2016). Deficient fluid volume related to excessive losses through normal
body openings as manifested by the patient passing loose watery stool and vomiting is an
appropriate nursing diagnosis in this case study(Durisch and Mueller, 2014). A nurse should
ensure adequate hydration by ensuring adequate fluid intake both intravenously and
orally(Hooks, 2016). As the patient is reporting of thirst and difficulty in urinating, he should
be encouraged to take a lot of oral fluids. This will prevent more dehydration and maintain a
high hydration status. Solid food intake should also be restricted in order to reduce intestinal

Reginald Bowen (Gastroenteritis) 4
workload and to allow for bowel rest(Ingle and Hinge Ingle, 2013). Frequent oral care should
also be provided in order to prevent the mouth from dryness. Very young and extremely old
patients, as is the case with Reginald Bowen are susceptible to fluid volume deficit(Gruber et
al., 2017). For this reason, nurses should closely monitor the two categories in order to ensure
that they are adequately hydrated(Hooks, 2016). Upon the implementation of these
interventions, the fluid intake should be approximately equivalent to the fluid output.
Conclusion
Viral gastroenteritis is easily spread from an infected person to other persons and thus
various measures should be put in place to prevent this occurrence. It is spread through fecal-
oral transmission when a noninfected person comes in contact with contaminated
environmental surfaces. For this reason, measures should be put in place to minimize this
spread. Among these measures is the aseptic hand washing technique which will ensure that
caregivers and noninfected persons do not come in contact with contaminated environmental
surfaces. A number of nursing interventions should also be put in place to ensure that the
infected patients restore optimal health and prevent further deterioration

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References
Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (2016) Australian Safety and
Quality Framework for Health Care: Putting the Framework into Action: Getting started,
National Standards and Accreditation. Available at: http://www.safetyandquality.gov.au/.
Durisch, N. and Mueller, N. (2014) ‘Norovirus gastroenteritis’, Gastroenterologe, 9(4), pp.
360–365. doi: 10.1007/s11377-014-0884-5.
Gruber, J. F. et al. (2017) ‘Risk factors for norovirus gastroenteritis among Nicaraguan
children’, American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 97(3), pp. 937–943. doi:
10.4269/ajtmh.16-0799.
Gundeslioglu, Ö. O. et al. (2016) ‘The effects of nosocomial rotavirus gastroenteritis on the
length of hospital stay and cost’, Journal of Infection in Developing Countries, 10(2), pp.
163–167. doi: 10.3855/jidc.5591.
Hooks, R. (2016) ‘Developing nursing care plans’, Nursing Standard , 30(45), pp. 64–65.
doi: 10.7748/ns.30.45.64.s48.
Ingle, S. B. and Hinge Ingle, C. R. (2013) ‘Eosinophilic gastroenteritis: An unusual type of
gastroenteritis’, World Journal of Gastroenterology, pp. 5061–5066. doi:
10.3748/wjg.v19.i31.5061.
Tao, S. Y. et al. (2013) ‘Handwashing behaviour among Chinese adults: A cross-sectional
study in five provinces’, Public Health, 127(7), pp. 620–628. doi:
10.1016/j.puhe.2013.03.005.
Zarkotou, O. et al. (2012) ‘Epidemiological and laboratory investigation and effective control
of a nosocomial outbreak of gastroenteritis due to Norovirus’, Clinical Microbiology and

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