LATEX ALLERGY RESPONSE Nursing Care Plan

Medical staffs and practitioners are most at risk having this latex allergy response since they materials made of latex most of the time. A lot of medical and dental supplies are made from natural latex rubber such as disposable gloves, dental, dams, airway and intravenous tubing, syringes, stethoscopes, catheters, dressings, and bandages. Doctor Ku, a 43 yeas old surgeon who is allergic to latex. Although he has been serving his profession for 8 years, he's been able to do his job by preventing himself to have a contact with natural latex rubber products while using them. "It was not easy," he said "but doing it carefully made that possible." Unfortunately, a newly-hired nurse unintentionally gave bandages with natural latex content to Doctor Ku which the surgeon unaware of touching it. Below is a sample of latex allergy response nursing care plan of Doctor Ku.

General symptoms of having latex allergy are the following:
- Flushing of his face
- Redness in his face
- Doctor Ku experience eczema 
- Wheezing
- Itching in his neck area
- Edema in his face, tongue and eyelids
- Doctor Ku have visible allergic conjunctivitis
- Doctor Ku is having asthmatic attack
- Rhinitis
- Urticaria

Planning:

After 4 hours of nursing intervention, the patient will able to describe products of natural rubber latex and will able to describe strategies to avoid exposure to these products.

Interventions:

- Assess for the causative and contributing factors that lead to latex allergy response of Doctor Ku to help eliminate exposure to latex products and use non-latex alternative supplies.

- Discuss to Doctor Ku, the patient, about how to protect from exposure to latex. Cover his skin with cloth before applying the blood pressure cuff during taking of his blood pressure levels. Do not allow rubber stethoscope tubing to touch him. Do not inject through rubber parts like heparin locks, instead use syringe or stopcock. Change his needles after each puncture of rubber stopper. Cover all the rubber parts with tape.

- Teach the patient that these are the following products that are commonly made of latex health care equipment:
1. Blood pressure cuffs
2. Natural latex rubber gloves, powdered or unpowdered, including those labeled with hypoallergenic
3. Stethoscopes
4. Tourniquets, a medical supply which applies pressure to a limb or extremity in order to limit but not stop the flow of blood.
5. Electrode pads, are parts of the transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), a method of pain relief involving the use of a mild electrical current.
6. Endotracheal tubes
7. Syringe plunges and bulb syringes
8. Masks for anesthesia
9. Rubber aprons
10. Wound drains and catheters. Catheters are soft hollow tube which is passed into the bladder to drain urine.
11. Injection ports
12. Tops of multi-dose vials
13. Adhesive tape
14. Ostomy pouches, a small, waterproof bag used to collect waste from the digestive or urinary system.
15. Wheelchair cushions
16. Briefs with elastic
17. Pads for crutches
18. Erasers
19. Rubber bands
20. Dishwashing gloves
21. Balloons
22. Condoms and diaphragms.
23. Baby bottle nipples and pacifiers
24. Rubber balls

- Initiate health teaching to Doctor Ku as indicated, explain to him the importance of completely avoiding direct contact with all natural rubber latex products. Advise that a patient with a history of a mild skin reaction to latex is at risk for anaphylaxis and it is life-treatening. Instruct the patient to wear a medic-alert bracelet stating "latex allergy" and to carry auto-injectable epinephrine. Instruct Doctor Ku, the patient, to warn all of his health care providers of the allergy.

Evaluation:

After 4 hours of nursing intervention, the patient was able to describe products of natural rubber latex and was able to describe strategies to avoid exposure to these products.

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