Nursing Care Plan (NCP) for Mastitis

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Hi everyone, today, we're going to be creating a nursing care plan for mastitis. So here let's get started. First, we're going to go over the pathophysiology. So, mastitis is inflammation of the breast tissue with or without infection that most often occurs in lactating women due to a plugged milk duct. Some nursing considerations: you want to assess vital signs, do a breast exam, use cool, warm compresses, administer medications, and educate on lactation. Desired outcomes: the patient will experience decreased pain, redness, and swelling. The patient will not exhibit signs of infection. The patient will resume breastfeeding with effectiveness of the breast. 

So, if we're going to go ahead and get started on the care plan, we're going to be writing down some subjective data and we're going to be writing down some objective data. So, what are we going to see with these patients? They may be complaining of fatigue. They'll also have unilateral breast pain and tenderness. Some objective data: they're going to have some redness and some swelling and also fever. Some other things are chills, burning during breastfeeding, general malaise, and a breast that's warm to touch. 

So, interventions, what are we going to do for these mamas? You want to assess the vital signs. So, in assessing vital signs, we're going to be looking for any sort of systemic infection. Mastitis may or may not be the result of an infection. You want to make sure you're monitoring for a fever. You want to make sure you're assessing the breast, noting any sort of swelling and tenderness in the area you want to assess for a baseline note. The location of the symptoms in mastitis generally occurs only on one breast at a time. You want to note the skin quality - the presence of cracked nipples that may indicate the potential for infection. You also want to monitor for signs of potential abscess development. Another intervention we want to do is encourage hydration. So, increase hydration. Drinking water really helps to promote milk production and flow. Another intervention we're going to do is applying any warm compresses. Warm compresses you want to do before breastfeeding and cold compresses after. So warm compresses before breastfeeding enable milk ducts to express milk. Also, during the day, cool compresses after breastfeeding or milk expression help with relieving pain and soothing the sore breasts. Another invention we're going to be doing is administering medications. So, medications such as ibuprofen or acetaminophen will help reduce pain and inflammation. And for a fever, antibiotics may also be given to treat infection. Another invention we're going to be doing is we're going to examine the patient's breastfeeding. You want to observe the positioning and the baby's latch. Improper positioning or a bad latch can cause the nipple pain and irritation, and it can be discouraging for the mom. So, you want to make sure that she's fully emptying the breast and get a consultation for lactation if needed. So, we're going to do lactation education including manually expressing milk after each feeding, alternating breasts when she's feeding, adjust our alternate positions for the feedings, and just making sure that we're providing any education and support for the mom and encouragement during breastfeeding, which will help resolve any sort of, of anxiety. 

All right, we're going to move on to some of the key points. So, mastitis is inflammation of the breast tissue with or without infection. Most often occurs in lactating women due to the plugged milk ducts. Some subjective and objective data. They may be having some chills, fever, redness, swelling of the breast tissue. It's warm to touch, unilateral breast pain and tenderness, and some fatigue. You want to make sure we are assessing vital signs. We're assessing the breast, encouraging hydration, applying a warm or a cool compress, administering medications. And we're going to make sure we're providing that lactation education for the mom. Perfect. That is the end of the care plan. 

You guys did great. We love you guys. Go out, be your best self today and as always happy nursing.

 
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