URINE TESTING – Purposes, Principle Involved, General Instructions, Equipment Needed Sugar and Albumin Test and Procedure (COMMUNITY HEALTH NURSING)
NURSING PROCEDURES LIST CLICK HERE
- Urine testing for sugar and albumin are the tests which are a part of routine urinalysis done at clinics (PHC) or in the home setup by the commonly health nurse during home visit
- The community health nurse carries a simple urinalysis kit in her bag and makes a urine test during home visits, to find out the abnormalities in the urine
PURPOSES
- To measure amount of glucose present in urine for patient suspected to have diabetes mellitus
- To measure presence of albumin for patient suspected impaired renal function
PRINCIPLES INVOLVED
- Specimen serves as a media for transmission of disease producing organisms to the personnel who handle them carelessly
- The accuracy and reliability of findings depend upon the correct method of collection and transportation of specimens
- Urine specimens allowed to stand at the room temperature for a long time will give a false result due to decomposition of urine
- Contaminated and improperly collected specimens will produce false results which will adversely affect the diagnosis and treatment of patients
- All equipment used for urine testing must be clean
- Make a second test when there is a doubt
GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS
- Ask the patient to clean the genital area with soap and water then water alone, before collecting specimen
- Instruct the patient to pass time into clean urinal or clean kidney tray or directly into specimen bottle
- Advice to take care not to spill the urine on the outside of the container
EQUIPMENT NEEDED SUGAR AND ALBUMIN TEST
Test tubes, test tube holder, Benedict’s solution, acetic acid, spirit lamp, match box, kidney tray, specimen collection bottle, dropper or pipette, 5 ml syringe, fresh urine sample, and urosticks
PROCEDURE
Unbutton the community bag lower compartment remove hand washing and urine test articles, arrange the equipment in a convenient place, wash hands and collect fresh sample of urine from the individual
Sugar test: take 5 ml of Benedict’s solution in a test tube; boil it to see color change. If not add 8 drops of urine with dropper shake well and boil it again. The result may be recorded to the color as blue, green, yellow orange and red. Blue indicates absence of sugar, green 1%, yellow 2%, orange 3% and Brick red 5%
Albumin test: fill ¾ of a test tube with filtered urine. See the reaction of the urine is acidic. If found alkaline, add one drop of acetic acid and make it acidic. Heat the upper third of the test tube over the spirit lamp and allow it to boil
A cloud may appear either due to phosphate or albumin. Add acidic acid drop by drop into the test tube. If the urine still remains cloudy, it indicates the presence of albumin. If becomes clear, it indicates the presence of phosphate
