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The Journey Of A Hospitalized Patient Essay

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Analyzing the journey of a hospitalized patient is imperative in nursing practice in order to produce holistic, strengths based care (Gottlieb, 2014). When examining the patient and his or her journey, it is crucial for the nurse to explore many factors including the patient’s personal history leading up to admission, the unique and individualized care plan, impacting strengths and gaps within the healthcare system, as well as the factors affecting discharge care and planning. For the purpose of this paper, a patient by the name of Anna will be explored in order to highlight essential aspects associated with providing holistic care. Patient Profile and Admission Criteria Anna is a fifty five year old homeless, unemployed woman who was admitted to the Emergency Room (ER) at Victoria Hospital in London, Ontario for pelvic pain and postmenopausal bleeding. During the nurse’s head-to-toe assessment it was found that the patient also had presenting abdominal distention, prompting her physician to order an X-Ray to determine if a gastrointestinal issue caused this distention. Once this was ruled out, Anna’s physicians continued to search for the underlying cause of her abdominal distention, in addition to her other admitting symptoms. As a result, Anna was admitted to the hospital as an inpatient on the Acute Medicine Unit. The day following admission, Anna went for further testing to hopefully discover the cause of her symptoms. The first test completed was an

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