CHILD HEALTH NURSING

Specimen Collection (lectures) - by Mrs Sunita Bhandari (Shah)

Specimen’s collection
A Specimen may be defined as a small quantity of a substance or object which shows the kind and quality of the sample.

Collection of the specimen is the procedure in which collect the any kind of body tissue or body fluid for laboratory investigation.
 
Purpose:
—To collect a specimen of body discharges or excreta for examination.
—To aid the doctor in diagnosing and resulting the disease.
 
Precautions:
—Explain the procedure, on the previous days to the patient.
—All specimens should be collected in clean and dry containers.
—Culture specimens must be collected in sterile container.
—Stool and sputum specimens should be collected in disposable cups.
—Large containers should be given to collect 24 hours specimen.
—Sterile test tubs are used to collect body fluids.
—Smears are collected on clean slides.
—Every specimen must have a label with the patient’s full name, age, Bed no., IP no., ward, and name of the specimen, nature of the test to be done and date of collection.
—Specimen must be placed on proper place.
—The specimen should not be contaminated at all
 
Collection of specimen

Urine specimen
—routine urine specimen
—Twenty- four hours urine specimen
—Midstream specimen for culture.
Stool specimen
—Routine stool test
—Occult Blood test.
Sputum specimen
Blood specimen
—Arterial blood gas: Measurement of blood PH arterial o2 and co2 tensions are obtained when managing patient with respiratory problem and in adjusting oxygen therapy as needed
 
Nursing care
Pre procedure:
—Explanation of the need of the test
—It well be pain full for the moment so it is necessary to hold
Post procedure:
Apply pressure site for 5 minutes if radial and brachial site
—10 minutes for femoral site
—Apply dressing for lumber puncture
Complication:
—Bleeding and hematoma formation
 
Cerebrospinal fluid specimen
—Diagnosis of bacterial or fungal meningitis by microscopic examination and culture with identification and susceptibility test of the isolated organism. Diagnosis of viral meningitis (polio, rabies, some arboviruses) by isolation and identification of the virus in cell culture.
 
Transportation:
—Short transportation time is essential. If the transportation time is more than one hour, the specimen should be sent in a cooling box (28 °C).
 
Reporting
—Results of the microscopy and all positive cultures of CSF are reported immediately to the treating physician. Negative bacterial results are sent out 72 hours after the CSF is received. Viral isolation may take at least 7 days.
—Total and differential white cell count is essential, particularly in the differentiation of bacterial and nonbacterial meningitis.
—In bacterial meningitis the glucose level is usually low and protein level is high, whereas in viral meningitis the glucose is within normal value and might increase slightly.
—In partially treated bacterial meningitis, the differentiation between bacterial and viral meningitis can be extremely difficult, but a low glucose level should be taken as an indication of the need for the start of intravenous antibiotic therapy.