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Diagnostic Testing Notes

Early diagnostic tests help establish diagnoses and guide treatment, which leads to early intervention and reduced illness. Tests evaluate disease severity, prognosis, progression, and help select and adjust therapies. Nurses educate clients and families on procedures, prepare clients, and sometimes perform tests. Tests can be noninvasive, involving no body entry, or invasive, accessing tissues or organs. Assessment data informs nursing diagnoses and care plans in collaboration with the healthcare team. Proper test selection, client preparation, and education are important. Ongoing monitoring is needed during conscious sedation procedures. Sensitivity and specificity impact a test's clinical value in correctly identifying health states.

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Christina Sorber
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319 views2 pages

Diagnostic Testing Notes

Early diagnostic tests help establish diagnoses and guide treatment, which leads to early intervention and reduced illness. Tests evaluate disease severity, prognosis, progression, and help select and adjust therapies. Nurses educate clients and families on procedures, prepare clients, and sometimes perform tests. Tests can be noninvasive, involving no body entry, or invasive, accessing tissues or organs. Assessment data informs nursing diagnoses and care plans in collaboration with the healthcare team. Proper test selection, client preparation, and education are important. Ongoing monitoring is needed during conscious sedation procedures. Sensitivity and specificity impact a test's clinical value in correctly identifying health states.

Uploaded by

Christina Sorber
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Diagnostic Testing Notes

 Early diagnostic tests: lead to early intervention and treatment, reduce morbidity,
establish/confirm diagnosis
o Tests confirm diagnoses, aid in making differential diagnoses, or help determine
activity or stage of disease
 Tests help:
o Evaluate severity of disease
o Estimate prognosis
o Monitor course of disease (progression, stability, resolution)
o Detect disease recurrence
o Select drugs and adjust therapy
 Role of nurse: teach client, family and significant others about diagnostic procedure,
steps to be taken in preparation for test, and care following procedure. Nurse
sometimes performs procedure.
 Noninvasive: body is not entered with any instruments, skin and body tissues, organs,
and cavities remain intact
 Invasive: accessing the body’s tissue, organ, or cavity through some type of
instrumentation procedure
 Assessment data used for: formulating nursing diagnosis, creating plan of care,
establishing outcome measures in collaboration with client and other members of
health care team
 Preparation for testing:
o Appropriate test selection
o Proper client preparation (ID band, vital signs, allergies)
o Client education
 Conscious sedation: minimally depressed level of consciousness during which the
client retains the ability to maintain a continuously patent airway and respond
appropriately to physical stimulation or verbal commands
o Ongoing assessment of patient required during procedure
 Airway
 Signs and symptoms of perforation of organ (change in vitals)
o Nurse responsibilities:
 Prepare room
 Gather and charge for supplies used during procedure
 Test equipment to ensure it is functional and safe
 Secure proper containers for specimen collection
 Local anesthesia: client loses sensation to a localized body part (spraying back of throat
with lidocane to decrease gag reflex)
 Regional anesthesia: client loses sensation in an area of the body (laparoscope for a
tubal sterilization)
 General anesthesia: client loses all sensation and consciousness (major surgical
procedures)
 Analyte: substance dissolved in a solution (solute)
o Common lab studies usually measure how many analytes are present in a
specimen
 Lab tests:
o Detect and quantify risk of future disease
o Establish and exclude diagnoses
o Assess severity of the disease process and determine the prognosis
o Guide the selection of interventions
o Monitor the progress of the disorder
o Monitor the effectiveness of the treatment
 Clinical value of a test is related to:
o Sensitivity: the likelihood that a diseased client has a positive result (100%
sensitivity means that all clients with a given disease will have positive
results and clients without the disease will have negative results)
o Specificity: the likelihood that a healthy individual will have negative
results (100% specificity means that all clients without a given disease
will have negative results)
o Incidence: the prevalence of a disease in a population or community
o Predictive value: the ability of screening test results to correctly identify
the disease state. A true-positive correctly identified persons who actually
have the disease, a true-negative correctly identifies persons who do not
actually have the disease
o

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