Care for Admitted Patients
How the diabetic ketoacidosis patient is handled for the first time by the nurses is imperative and decides if the patient will heal at a faster rate or not (Barski et al., 2018). Patients with severe symptoms are usually placed in intensive care units. The nurses will first have to:
Inject some fluids containing sodium chloride via a vein to restore the circulating volume of the blood. This is because some of the symptoms of DKA include dehydration and frequent urine loss.
Inject the artificial insulin; this will reduce the concentration of blood sugar that may be present in the patient’s body (Karges et al., 2017). This will also correct the acidosis levels resulting in a reduction in the ketones level.
Give the patient potassium supplements; potassium supplements will help prevent the accumulation of ketones in the patients’ body.
Fluid Loss Treatment
A DKA patient loses typically about six to nine litters of fluids, and the therapy is aimed at replacing the fluids’ losses in about 24 hours and includes administering the patient with 0.9 percent sodium chloride for the first eight to twelve hours depending on how the patients’ blood is flowing (Wolfsdorf et al., 2014). Afterward, the patient is administered with about 0.45 percent based on the present sodium concentration