Caring For The Hospice Client In The Clinical Setting
...University of South Dakota
Department of Nursing
Abstract
The Author has completed a case study on a patient on a Medical Surgical floor as observed during a clinical rotation. A reader will find complete overview of a woman experiencing primary peritoneal cancer with metastasis who is under the care of hospice. Following a referral from hospice for a thoracentesis the patient is hospitalized. The reader will understand priority nursing diagnosis for a person with this condition.
Case Study
This paper briefly discusses some of the aspects of caring for an individual with complex health needs. Included are a health history, an overview of the medical management, nursing management and roles in caring for the person.
Assessment and Plan
This female patient is seventy two years old, Caucasian, divorced, and living alone on a farm in rural South Dakota. She has a high school education and works in a nursing home doing mending and laundry work. This patient is in Erickson’s Ego integrity versus despair. (Craven and Hirnle, 2003) This theory discusses the person’s point of view of one’s place in life. The patient exhibits integrity. She is accepting of her disease process and is thinking about her life in a positive way.
Chief Complaint and History of Present Illness
This patient, referred through hospice has arrived to be treated for a thoracentesis on an outpatient basis. The patient developed a pneumothorax and received a right chest tube placement. The purpose of the thoracentesis was primarily comfort measures for relief of fluid accumulation and the resulting dyspnea. Therapeutic thoracentesis can commonly cause pneumothorax. (emedicine.com)
Pneumothorax is the accumulation of air or gas in the pleural space. (Lewis, Heitkemper, and Dirksen, 2004) This patient’s pneumothorax was treated with a chest tube and monitored with...
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