Gastrointestinal Bleeding

Gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding can occur when an acute or chronic irritant disrupts the mucosal barrier or when a disease alters the process that maintains the mucosal barrier (LaMone, Burke, Bauldoff, & Gubrud, 2015). Gastrointestinal bleeding can happen anywhere along the gastrointestinal tract (Gastrointestinal bleeding, 2015). GI bleeding is divided into upper GI bleeding and lower GI bleeding. The upper GI bleeding includes the esophagus, stomach, and the first part of the small intestine. The lower GI bleeding includes the rest of the small intestine, large intestine, rectum, and anus (Gastrointestinal bleeding, 2015). This paper will address the acute disease process of GI bleeding.
Many factors can cause GI bleeding (Gastrointestinal
This assessment should include: abdominal pain and weight loss, medication use (NSAIDS or other medications that could cause ulcers or intestinal ischemia), recent colonoscopy, prior abdominal/pelvic radiation, or prior operations. Those with a history of alcoholism or chronic liver disease could be bleeding due to portal hypertension. Vital signs are the most important component of the exam because it will help measure vascular volume status (Ghassemi & Jensen, 2013). Asking the right questions nurses maybe able to prevent many complications. Those questions should include: Can my patient protect his airway when vomiting? Is his mental status altered? Is his breathing altered? How much blood has been lost? (Campbell, 2008). According to research, nurses can use a scoring system called with the acronym “BLEED”: ongoing bleeding, low blood pressure, elevated prothrombin time (PT), erratic mental status, and unstable co-morbid disease to predict the clinical outcome of GI bleeding (Shebl, Mohamed, & Othman, 2013). By using this scoring system, patients have shown an increased level of satisfaction in communication, technical care, continuity of care, and concern items (Shebl et al.,