Ménière Disease: Registered Nurse Care in Canadian Practice

Ménière disease is a long-term inner ear disorder that produces unpredictable attacks of rotational vertigo together with fluctuating sensorineural hearing loss, tinnitus and a feeling of fullness in the ear. It usually starts in one ear in adults in their forties to sixties. Attacks come in clusters separated by remissions of weeks to years, and over time hearing in the affected ear tends to decline permanently. Registered nurses in Canadian hospitals, clinics and home care meet these clients during an acute attack, after procedures such as intratympanic injection, and in follow-up for teaching. For exam preparation, focus on three skills: protecting the client from falls during vertigo, supporting the maintenance plan (sodium restriction, medications, trigger control), and recognizing when vertigo is a sign of stroke or another emergency rather than a typical attack.