What is the reason why nurses have to check the voiding of a patient in a hospital?
If a patient has chronic cardiac failure it means that part of the heart is not pumping as it should therefore overloading the heart with fluid volume. The best treatment for this is diuretics medication. To ensure that the medication is working we do fluid balance chart and document the intake (which includes oral, iv, and subcutaneous) and output (this includes urine, feaces, vomiting any blood loss) and there should be a deficit in the balance. Another method that we use is to weigh the patient every morning and note the fluid loss of the patient. Measuring the output (urine) may also be because the kidneys are not working. Another reason for measuring urine output is that a patient with a stroke (CVA or TIA) can sometimes go into urinary retention in that the brain dosn’t register that the bladder needs to empty.
