Specific Nursing Care Rendered In Hepatic Encephalopathy: Contemporary Review and New Clinical Insights

Introduction: Hepatic Encephalopathy (HE) is neuropsychiatric deterioration syndrome due to hepatic insufficiency. HE symptoms appear gradually ranging from altered mental status to deep coma and manifest as disorders of orientation, memory, perception, reasoning, focusing, rigor, and generalized convulsions. Four levels of HE exist with different symptoms. Aim of the paper: To observe Specific Nursing Care rendered to hepatic encephalopathy patients and determining the significance of nurse education and employment length in HE patient healthcare. Methodology: This is a cross-sectional study of 70 nurses in (Clinical Center of Serbia, Clinic for Gastroenterology and Hepatology) Between May1 to December15, 2011. The questionnaire was divided into two parts with 18 questions in total. The first part consisted of general questions (sex, professional education, working experience, working hours), while the second part had 13 questions assessing knowledge of nurses about the specificities of HE healthcare Results: The most common cause of hepatic encephalopathy is ethylic cirrhosis with 69.2%, while 30.8% of patients with cirrhosis and HE died in period from 1.5.-15.12.2011. Nurses (N=70) declared that 91.4% of them had no adequate conditions to provide necessary HE patient healthcare. Out of N=70, 78.6% knew how to recognize first symptoms of HE while 64.3% nurses made no difference between HE and other diseases. Conclusion: Specificity of HE patient healthcare encompassess nursing interventions and diagnosis. Through continuous education, respecting previous knowledge, it is necessary to focus on specific diseases such as hepatic encephalopathy with the aim of providing healthcare excellence.