Seizure Assessment
You're watching a preview. 300,000+ students are watching the full lesson.
Included In This Lesson
Study Tools For Seizure Assessment
NURSING.com students have a 99.25% NCLEX pass rate.
Outline
Overview
- Assess for risk before, safety during, and changes in level of consciousness afterwards.
Nursing Points
Assessment
- Before Seizure
- Risk Factors
- Assess for medication compliance
- Assess for Aura
- Sensation that warns of impending seizure
- Different for every patient
- See colors
- Smell metal
- Feel tingly
- Assess and Document
- Type
- Onset
- Duration
- Complications
- Biting tongue
- Aspiration
- Injury
- Postictal State – period after seizure
- Memory loss
- Sleepiness
- Impaired speech
- Disorientation
- Agitation
Unlock the Complete Study System
Used by 300,000+ nursing students. 99.25% NCLEX pass rate.
- Full lesson outlines
- NCLEX simulator (SIMCLEX)
- 6,500+ practice questions
- 2,000+ lesson videos
- 300+ cheatsheets
200% NCLEX Pass Guarantee.
No Contract. Cancel Anytime.
ADPIE Related Lessons
Related Nursing Process (ADPIE) Lessons for Seizure Assessment
Transcript
As a nurse, there are things you will need to assess for the patient before, during, and after a seizure. Let’s look at them closer.
The first thing we need to assess is whether the patient is at risk for seizures. We talked in the Causes lesson about what sorts of things can cause seizures. So if you get report and find out your patient had a stroke and now has a sodium level of 165, you know there’s some definite risk there, right? We’ll also assess for medication noncompliance – not having these meds at a therapeutic level can cause breakthrough seizures and even status epilepticus. And then, if this patient has a seizure disorder or has them often, they may be able to sense if one is coming because they get an aura. Auras are different for each patient, some will see lights or shapes like what you see here. Other patients will taste metal or feel tingly. Either way, if the patient has an aura, they can warn you that the seizure is coming.
Once a patient begins having a seizure, our number one priority is safety. That means protecting their airway, and keeping them free of injury. Many patients who have seizures may have difficulty breathing or could potentially aspirate during the seizure. We will talk about nursing interventions specifically in the nursing care lesson, however, part of your assessments during a seizure are to make sure that we prevent or quickly identify and treat these complications. We also want to make note of what time the seizure started and how long it lasts, as well as any events that occurred leading up to the seizure. This will help us to identify the cause and potentially reverse it.
After a generalized seizure, patients will enter what’s known as the postictal phase or the postictal state. Now, this typically doesn’t happen with focal seizures, although some patients may feel a bit dizzy afterwards. In the postictal phase, patients will be very drowsy, they may even take a few minutes to regain any sort of consciousness. They will not remember the seizure or what just happened. They tend to be disoriented and sometimes agitated because they’re confused and scared. Sometimes we even see slurred speech. This is one of the easiest ways to know if a patient had a true generalized seizure. If they wake up immediately and say “wow, I just had a seizure, that was a bad one!”….then there’s a possibility they could have been faking. Of course, patients don’t read the textbooks, right? But 99% of the time, patients enter this drowsy, disoriented postictal phase for a brief period of time after a generalized seizure. So we want to assess their level of consciousness and continue to keep them safe.
So let’s recap – before a patient even has a seizure, we want to assess risk factors, compliance with medications, and whether the patient might experience auras. During the seizure, we are focused on assessing for airway protection, breathing, and safety, as well as considering the events leading up to the seizure to determine the possible cause. And afterwards, we expect this postictal drowsy, confused phase, so we want to assess their LOC and maintain their safety.
So those are the major assessments for patients before, during, and after a seizure. Keep working through this module to learn about therapeutic management and specific nursing care for these patients. You guys are awesome! Let us know if you have any questions. Happy Nursing!
Study Faster with Full Video Transcripts
99.25% NCLEX Pass Rate vs 88.8% National Average
- Full lesson outlines
- NCLEX simulator (SIMCLEX)
- 6,500+ practice questions
- 2,000+ lesson videos
- 300+ cheatsheets
200% NCLEX Pass Guarantee.
No Contract. Cancel Anytime.
🚨PRICE INCREASE COMING
Lock in Lifetime Access at OVER 50% Off
reg $499 → $199
or 5 payments of $39.99
Ends January 17
Study Plan for Study Skills, Test Taking for the NCLEX® Using Med-Surg (Lewis 10th ed.) designed for Westmoreland County Community College
Concepts Covered:
- Concepts of Population Health
- Factors Influencing Community Health
- Community Health Overview
- Substance Abuse Disorders
- Upper GI Disorders
- Renal Disorders
- Newborn Care
- Integumentary Disorders
- Tissues and Glands
- Central Nervous System Disorders – Brain
- Digestive System
- Urinary Disorders
- Urinary System
- Musculoskeletal Trauma
- Concepts of Mental Health
- Health & Stress
- Developmental Theories
- Fundamentals of Emergency Nursing
- Communication
- Basics of NCLEX
- Test Taking Strategies
- Prioritization
- Delegation
- Emotions and Motivation
- Integumentary Disorders
- Legal and Ethical Issues
- Basic
- Preoperative Nursing
- Labor and Delivery
- Fetal Development
- Newborn Complications
- Postpartum Complications
- Postpartum Care
- Labor Complications
- Pregnancy Risks
- Prenatal Concepts
- Circulatory System
- Cardiac Disorders
- Emergency Care of the Cardiac Patient
- Vascular Disorders
- Shock
- Postoperative Nursing
- Intraoperative Nursing
- Oncology Disorders
- Neurological Emergencies
- Respiratory Disorders
- Female Reproductive Disorders
- Acute & Chronic Renal Disorders
- Liver & Gallbladder Disorders
- Lower GI Disorders
- Disorders of Pancreas
- Disorders of the Thyroid & Parathyroid Glands
- Disorders of the Adrenal Gland
- Disorders of the Posterior Pituitary Gland
- Immunological Disorders
- Hematologic Disorders
- EENT Disorders
- Integumentary Important Points
- Musculoskeletal Disorders
- Emergency Care of the Neurological Patient
- Peripheral Nervous System Disorders
- Central Nervous System Disorders – Spinal Cord
- Neurologic and Cognitive Disorders
- Eating Disorders
- Noninfectious Respiratory Disorder
- Respiratory Emergencies
- Infectious Respiratory Disorder
- Psychological Emergencies
- Trauma-Stress Disorders
- Personality Disorders
- Cognitive Disorders
- Bipolar Disorders
- Depressive Disorders
- Psychotic Disorders
- Anxiety Disorders
- Somatoform Disorders
- Infectious Disease Disorders
- Musculoskeletal Disorders
- Renal and Urinary Disorders
- Cardiovascular Disorders
- EENT Disorders
- Gastrointestinal Disorders
- Hematologic Disorders
- Oncologic Disorders
- Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders
- Childhood Growth and Development
- Adulthood Growth and Development
- Medication Administration
- Nervous System
- Dosage Calculations
- Learning Pharmacology
- Prefixes
- Suffixes