Sepsis Case Study Essay

Sepsis is a systemic, deleterious host response to infection leading to severe sepsis (Dellinger, 2013). A more detailed description includes acute organ dysfunction secondary to documented or suspected infection and or severe sepsis plus hypotension is not reversed with fluid resuscitation (Dellinger, 2013). The definition of sepsis is further defined as the presence (probable or suspected) of infection together with systemic manifestations of infection (Neviere, 2015). Dellinger (2013) emphasized severe sepsis and septic shock affect millions of people around the world each year, killing one in four, and increasing in incidence.
Sepsis and related syptoms are among the most common causes of mortality worldwide. Patients diagnosed with sepsis have a high mortality rate, which is more than 50% in some microorganisms causing infection (Yousefi, 2011). Sepsis is the tenth leading cause of death in the United States, and the mortality rate is between 40% and 60% (Burney, 2012). The hospitalization rate of patients with a principal diagnosis of septicemia or sepsis doubled from 2000 through 2008, increasing from 11.6 to 24.0 per 10,000 population (CITE).
The new International Surviving Sepsis Campaign guidelines provide updated evidence-based practice recommendations to promote best practices for patient care. A critical care nurse knowledge of the new guideline recommendations can help ensure patients with sepsis receive therapies based on the latest scientific evidence (Kleinpell, 2013). Nurses within these settings are under educated about the signs and symptoms of early sepsis. Therefore, risking these patients’ to fall through the cracks leading to a life threatening situation. Since nurses are the first clinicians to evaluate patients, they have an opportunity and responsibility to suspect sepsis and initiate the clinical pathway (Burney,