Uncomplicated vs. Complicated Urinary Tract Infection (Nursing)

00:00 Hi, welcome to our video series on interpreting lab values. In this portion of the series, I'm going to go over how you can evaluate effective antibiotic therapy for a UTI by looking at the urine culture and sensitivity results. Huh, I think I need a nap. That was a long one, but this is going to be really fun so hang with me. First, let's talk about an uncomplicated versus a complicated UTI or urinary tract infection. If it's uncomplicated, we've got a normal urinary tract. The patient has normal voiding ability that dispenses the bacteria, gets rid of it, and usually females are considered uncomplicated. If a male has a UTI, we consider that complicated, the reason being about their anatomy. Females have a very short urethra. It's really close to the anus, so they typically get UTIs more often. If a male client has picked up a UTI, because of their anatomy it usually protects them from that, that's why it's considered complicated. So, complicated means there's some abnormality that prevents normal voiding function so they're not able to dispense that bacteria from the urinary tract. That's why males most often if they're diagnosed with a UTI is considered complicated. Now, the way I've laid out this slide for you is I want to give you a list of things you want to watch for in an uncomplicated UTI because this is how an uncomplicated UTI becomes a complicated one.

01:32 So we know that most likely we're going to see a complicated UTI if it's in a male patient, but let's talk about what you see most often. Any patient with a UTI, I want to watch them closely for failure to respond to treatment. See that's my ethical responsibility as a nurse, to make sure any treatment plan I'm participating in with you is effective. Also, it's a huge category on NCLEX. They're going to expect that you can recognize if we've selected an appropriate treatment, a safe treatment, and an effective treatment. Now, the severity of illnesses beyond the urinary tract can also be an issue. We mean what else the patient has going on or if the infection is spreading beyond the urinary tract. So keep that in mind. I want to watch a UTI and make sure that it doesn't progress into something more serious. Now, comorbidities such as diabetes or immunosuppression really put me on high alert for a patient with a UTI. It's just more difficult to treat patients who have diabetes or immunosuppression because they have a hard time responding. Why? Their immune systems aren't functioning like someone without diabetes or immunosuppression.