Nursing Care Plan for Nausea - Diagnosis and Interventions

Nursing Care Plan for Nausea

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Nursing Care Plan for Nausea

Nurses work around the clock to ensure their patients are getting only the best of healthcare. Different people will suffer from different ailments, and it is often wise to follow detailed care plans for maximum efficiency. In this article, we will offer a proper nursing care plan for nausea example, so keep reading!

What Is Nausea?

Nausea refers to an uncomfortable feeling and urge to vomit. Vomiting describes the forceful emptying of one’s stomach. The sensation occurs in the throat and abdomen and does not always lead to vomiting. Signs of nausea include:

  • Increased saliva
  • Sweating
  • Stomach ache
  • Retching/dry heaving (the contraction of abdominal and respiratory muscles without actually vomiting)
  • Low appetite

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17 Potential Causes of Nausea

Just like with any other disease, there are multiple probable causes of nausea that you should note in your nursing plan of care. Sometimes, the patient may suffer from several causes mentioned, and this may affect the extremity of symptoms. The causes of nausea are:

1. Phobias/fear

One may feel nauseous due to anxiety or fear of something. For example, one may feel nauseous when they feel nervous due to motion, like when on a plane.

2. Pregnancy

Nausea in pregnancy is a result of a hormone known as human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG). 

3. Migraine

A migraine refers to an intense headache. It may result in nausea since the digestive system slows down, leading to a nauseous feeling.

4. Food poisoning

If you consume contaminated, you may experience nausea. Food may be contaminated by toxins or bacteria and, when consumed, leads to sickness. This is one of the most common causes noted when forming a nursing care plan for nausea. 

5. Virus infection

Viruses such as norovirus and influenza may lead the patient to feel nauseous.

6. Eating disorders

Eating disorders refer to disordered eating habits often caused by mental illness. One is bulimia nervosa which leads patients to binge eat and thereafter force themselves to vomit.

7. Thyroid disorders

There are two significant types of thyroid disorders. These are hypothyroidism which is when someone’s thyroid does not produce enough thyroid hormone, while hyperthyroidism is when it produces too much. Nausea may result from altered gastric motility or outlet dysfunction.

8. Gastrointestinal disorders

Gastrointestinal disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome cause issues in the digestive tract, sometimes leading to nausea. 

9. Certain medications

Some medications like antidepressants, opioids, chemotherapy medication, antibiotics, hormonal contraceptives, and many others, but these medicines mostly come with a warning label.

10. Inner ear problems

Inner ear diseases refer to infections that affect structures deep within the ear. An example is labyrinthitis which is proven to cause nausea.

11. Bowel blockage

If a patient is suffering from an obstruction in the stomach, small intestine, or another organ in the bowel, they will likely vomit dark green bile and food contents since it's forced back up. If you would like help with writing a nursing diagnosis for small bowel obstruction, place your order with us today. 

12. Endometriosis

Endometriosis describes a disease where the uterus lining grows outside the uterus in areas like the lungs and ovaries. Nausea arises in such cases due to high levels of the prostaglandin hormone and the pain the condition causes.

13. Ulcers

Ulcers are sores in the stomach, esophageal, or small intestine lining and are a very common nausea nursing diagnosis. They are caused by bacterial infection and break down these organs’ linings leading to ulcers. They cause nausea because they block food passage and may trigger inflammation leading to contractions and, thereafter, nausea. 

14. Liver and pancreatic issues

Liver and pancreatic diseases include inflammation of either the liver or pancreas, hepatic cysts, tumors, and more. In some cases, they are exceedingly painful and require urgent care. This may result in nausea since these two organs both affect digestion and result in a poor breakdown in ingested food leading to nausea. 

15. Neurological problems

Patients who suffer from conditions like traumatic brain injury, stroke, multiple sclerosis, and other conditions may also suffer from nausea. This is because these conditions affect neurotransmitters like dopamine, and alkaloids like apomorphine communicate to the brain receptors on the fourth ventricle and activate them, leading to nausea.

16. Appendicitis

Appendicitis refers to inflammation of the appendix. The patient may feel pain around the navel and abdomen region, which causes nausea due to upsetting the digestive system. 

17. Ovarian diseases

Patients suffering from ailments like ruptured ovarian cysts, PCOS, or ovarian cancer may suffer nausea. In a case like ovarian cysts, the extra mass may make it twist around the supporting ligaments. 

Aside from ideas on how to write a nursing care plan for dehydration, we have also written other articles about nursing and how to diagnose and treat other illnesses, one of which is a risk for bleeding nursing diagnosis. 

3 Effects of Nausea

1. Dehydration

The main effect of nausea is dehydration since the body loses a lot of fluids in the process. As food travels through the digestive tract, it is broken down to extract nutrients. The digestive system also uses water and fiber to aid in the process, but once a patient vomits, they lose this water. Thus, a nursing care plan for dehydration will include advice for them to take in some fluids to replace that which was lost. 

2. Malnutrition

If you repeatedly suffer nausea, you may end up losing a lot of nutrients since the nutrients extracted from the food are never absorbed. As such, there is a risk of contracting diseases associated with malnutrition, such as vitamin deficiencies. 

3. General weakness

It is common for people suffering from nausea to feel weak since they do not retain the food consumed; thus, their bodies do not use it for energy. 

10 Ways To Treat Nausea

There are many ways of treating nausea that you could include in your nursing care for nausea plan. Please note that these depend on the resources available and the patient’s ability to withstand the treatment. Also, if you would like help analyzing other diseases and potential treatment plans aside from our nausea nursing diagnosis, check out our other articles, such as the nursing diagnosis for Pneumonia.

The various nursing interventions for nausea are:

1. Eat bland food

After waiting some time after vomiting, the patient may eat but should take bland foods with no spices or fats. Options include rice, toast, and crackers. 

2. Avoid greasy or sweet foods

Greasy and sweet foods can make your nausea worse. This is because of the intense smells and tastes that may trigger your senses. Fatty foods take longer to digest and hence can worsen nausea. 

3. Get some fresh air

After vomiting, get out and get some fresh air since you may be affected by certain scents, heat, humidity, and other things in enclosed spaces.

4. Drink slowly

While the patient should have some water, it is important to do so slowly to avoid overfilling the stomach and triggering vomiting. It also allows the stomach to absorb the water or food slowly.

5. Eat smaller portions

Instead of taking large meals, which could overload the digestive system, the patient should eat small portions to help their system slowly recover.

6. Rest after eating

After eating, it is important to restrict movement to ensure your digestive system can adjust with ease. 

7. Take clear, cold, and sour drinks

The patient should also be advised to avoid drinks like soda and juice since they contain lots of sugars and artificial flavors that may trigger nausea.

8. Drink peppermint or ginger tea

Many cultures have traditionally used ginger to relieve nausea and peppermint helps by soothing the digestive system.

9. Rest

After consuming food or beverage, take a short break.

10. Take some medication

If the nausea is persistent, the patient may opt for medicines such as Dramamine, antacids, and Pepto-Bismol, among others. 

While the above list of nursing interventions for nausea is not exhaustive, the measures listed can help you assist a patient effectively. As such, following the example can help you write a proper nursing plan of care.

Nursing Care Plan For Nausea Example

Below is an example of a nursing care plan for nausea. Please note that it follows the six-column structure, which is common for students, but there are other options, such as the three-column format as outlined in our guide on how to write a nursing care plan which you can use when writing a nursing diagnosis for small bowel obstruction.

Assessment

Nursing Diagnosis

Outcomes

Interventions

Rationales

Evaluation

-Patient reports feeling nauseous for several hours.

-Patient displays symptoms like increased salivation, poor appetite, stomach upsets, bloating, heartburn, burning pain in the upper stomach, and vomiting.

-Diagnosed with peptic ulcers likely caused by a Heliobacter pylori infection from contaminated food and water.

- An improvement in the patient’s stomach lining and cessation of nausea and other symptoms.

-Advise patient to take proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) like omeprazole and pantoprazole for four weeks.

-The patient can also use home remedies such as probiotics, honey, plantains, chamomile, aloe vera, and many others.

-Advice patient to avoid acidic foods like lemons and tomatoes, processed foods, coffee, alcohol, chocolate, and general overeating.

- The medications suggested will help by killing the heliobacter pylori and blocking the H+/K+ ATPase enzyme or the gastric proton pump thus blocking the acid production process.

-The medication should be taken for at least four to eight weeks and will help reduce symptoms significantly over that period.

- After eight weeks, diagnostic tests may be done such as upper endoscopy, breath tests, stool antigen, and blood tests to gauge progress.

 

This plan is more detailed compared to those with fewer columns, but only because it is used to train students. As such, a working nurse may form a nursing care plan for nausea with only the diagnosis, goals, interventions, and evaluation columns. 

We also offer help with other topics in nursing aside from the nursing care plan for nausea; hence have written articles such as nursing capstone project ideas.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What are the metrics of success in patient care?

There are seven categories of potential outcome measures in healthcare:

  • Proper use of medical imaging
  • Patient experience
  • Effectiveness of care
  • Patient experience
  • Safety of care
  • Timeliness of care
  • Mortality
  • Readmission

Most healthcare professionals seek to help patients fully recover, but different issues may lead to other outcomes, and it is necessary to keep track of them.

2. How should you evaluate patient progress?

You can monitor a patient’s progress by:

  • Measuring and charting relevant parameters
  • Analyzing the changes in values and using them to forecast patient progress
  • Reassess and review patient health for symptoms

3. What are the 4 principles of nursing to use when forming a nursing plan?

The four principles of nursing are autonomy, beneficence, justice, and non-maleficence. Autonomy refers to respecting the patient’s ability to make decisions, while beneficence is kindness and charity. Justice is fairness and impartiality, while non-maleficence is avoiding or minimizing harm. 

4. Can you use F-DAR charting for a nursing plan?

An F-DAR charting plan is slightly different from a nursing plan since it focuses on one event and is used by nurses with several patients. As such, it is formulated for use by different healthcare workers, not just nurses, and gives them an idea of what happened during a shift, while a nursing plan is more detailed.

In A Nutshell

In short, nausea is a condition where one feels the urge to vomit. It may result in symptoms such as increased saliva, dry heaving, sweating, low appetite, and stomachache. There are many probable causes for nausea, such as migraine, endometriosis, reaction to certain medications, liver and pancreatic issues, ulcers, and bowel blockages, among others. If left untreated, it may lead to malnutrition and dehydration hence the need for treatment. These treatments include over-the-counter medication, tasking bland food, resting, cold drinks, eating small portions, avoiding greasy foods, and many others.

All these can be included when drafting a nursing care plan for nausea, depending on the cause. In the nursing care plan example given, the patient has a peptic ulcer and is provided with medication to take for four to eight weeks. For students seeking help writing something similar, consider placing an order today for a well-written nursing care plan for nausea.

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