Question

what are the key patient education considerations when nursing a patient with deep vein thrombosis (250 words) (bullet points)

Answer 1

The major goals for the patient include:

• Demonstrate increased perfusion as individually appropriate.
• Verbalize understanding of condition, therapy, regimen, side effects of medications, and when to contact the healthcare provider.
• Engage in behaviors or lifestyle changes to increase level of ease.
• Verbalize sense of comfort or contentment.
• Maintain position of function and skin integrity as evidenced by absence of contractures, footdrop, decubitus, and so forth.
• Maintain or increase strength and function of affected and/or compensatory body part.

Nursing Interventions

The major nursing interventions that the nurse should observe are:

• Provide comfort. Elevation of the affected extremity, graduated compression stockings, warm application, and ambulation are adjuncts to the therapy that can remove or reduce discomfort.
• Compression therapy. Graduated compression stockings reduce the caliber of the superficial veins in the leg and increase flow in the deep veins; external compression devices and wraps are short stretch elastic wraps that are applied from the toes to the knees in a 50% spiral overlap; intermittent pneumatic compression devices increase blood velocity beyond that produced by the stockings.
• Positioning and exercise. When patient is on bed rest, the feet and lower legs should be elevated periodically above the level of the heart, and active and passive leg exercises should be performed to increase venous flow.