ACTIVE LEARNING TEMPLATE: Diagnostic Procedure

STUDENT NAME______________________________________
Sputum Culture and Sensitivity
PROCEDURE NAME_____________________________________________________________________ REVIEW MODULE CHAPTER____________

Description of Procedure
A sputum culture is a sample of the gooey substance that often comes up from your chest
when you have an infection in your lungs or airways. Doctors use it to figure out what might be
causing your illness, whether it's bacteria, a virus or something else.

Indications CONSIDERATIONS

Sputum culture is used to diagnose Nursing Interventions (pre, intra, post)

pneumonia, bronchiectasis, Patients should be advised to not clean their
bronchitis, or pulmonary abscess. teeth or use a mouthwash before specimen
It assists in the diagnosis of collection as this may kill the bacteria. It is
respiratory infections, as indicated important to check that the sample contains
sputum, as samples contaminated with
by the presence or absence of oropharyngeal secretions and saliva are
organisms in culture. difficult to interpret and can be misleading.

Interpretation of Findings
Client Education
The most common pathogens Take a very deep breath and hold
detected with a sputum culture are the air for 5 seconds. Slowly
bacteria such as Streptococcus breathe out. Take another deep
pneumoniae, Haemophilus breath and cough hard until some
influenzae, Staphylococcus aureus, sputum comes up into your mouth.
and Klebsiella species. Keep doing this until the sputum

Potential Complications Nursing Interventions

Although there are not any major side
effects associated with having a sputum
culture, deep coughing can cause some
minor discomfort. You may also feel light
chest pain after giving a sample. Patients
who have had previous abdominal surgery
may need to hold a pillow over their stomach
to minimize discomfort.
Provide mouth care to the patient. Monitor
his vital signs and respiratory status. Monitor
oxygen saturation with a pulse oximeter. If
the patient becomes hypoxic or cyanotic
during suctioning, remove the catheter
immediately and give oxygen while
suctioning pulse oximetry.

ACTIVE LEARNING TEMPLATES