Facebook Pixel

Urinary Tract Infections (UTI): How Are These Diagnosed? - Dale Ann Dorsey

By Expert
 
Rate This

Nurse Practitioner Dale Ann Dorsey explains how urinary tract infections are diagnosed and discusses the medications used to treat these infections.

Dale Ann Dorsey:
Urinary tract infections are diagnosed by a urinalysis that’s taken from a clean catch of your urine and it’s tested for different types of substances.

And then we can send it off for a culture and sensitivity to tell exactly what bacteria is causing your infection and what medications are best effective against it.

Usually with a bladder infection you will be started on an antibiotic and the results from the culture may take a couple of days.

If there is any changes that would need to be made, say we determined that the antibiotic is not effective against the bacteria then we would have to change the antibiotic.

Most of the time we don’t wait for the culture to come back to initiate treatment.

Standard medications for urinary tract infection are an antibiotic. There are some that have a high concentration in the urine and we try those first.

Also we can prescribe a urinary analgesic which will cause pain relief in the bladder so that while the antibiotic is working to kill the bacteria and get rid of the infection, you are getting some pain relief at the same time.

An analgesic is a medication that kills pain.

About Dale Ann Dorsey:
Dale Ann Dorsey, M.S.N., W.H.N.P., received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from ASU and worked in maternal/child health as a labor and delivery nurse, childbirth educator and clinical nursing instructor. She completed her Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner training at Harbor/University of California, Los Angeles, and her Master of Science in Nursing at California State University, Long Beach. Before entering private practice, she worked at 2 valley OB/GYN offices and the ASU Student Health Center. She is also an Associate Faculty at ASU College of Nursing. She believes in providing patient care with a holistic perspective, incorporating mind-body-spirit and brings over 20 years experience to her practice.

Visit Dale Ann Dorsey at Arcadia Well Woman