Experience of the nursing team concerning the care of patients with meningitis attended in emergency department

Abstract

Objective: To unveil the experience of the nursing team in relation to the care of patients with meningitis attended in emergency departments.

Methods: Exploratory and qualitative study made with 13 nurses and 12 nursing technicians from the emergency sector of a public hospital located in Northeast of Brazil. The data was gathered through an interview using a semi-structured script. The interviews were transcribed, processed in the Iramuteq software and analyzed with the descending hierarchical classification.

Results: Three categories were obtained and they were referent to the accomplished interventions (administration of medication, patient’s isolation, contribution in the accomplishment of exams, use of individual protection equipment and humanization), to the experienced feelings (fear and unsafety) and the disease’s suggestive alerts (headache, neck stiffness, changes in the conscience level and vomit).

Conclusions: The nursing experience in the care of patients with meningitis, in the emergency sector, was shown to be permeated by the accomplishment of interventions, feelings, and knowledge about the symptoms.