Nursing Case Study For Hematemesis

Today marked my seventh clinical day on the floor at UH Ahuja. My patient assigned to me was a female admitted for hematemesis, which means the presence of blood in vomit. I learned that her hematemesis was caused by a GI bleed secondary to a gastric ulcer. The vomit was described as coffee ground texture and color. I looked into it and discovered that it could be an indicator of an upper GI bleed. I talked to Stephanie about this, and she confirmed this. She also asked me which labs to watch out for and what they could indicate. I answered with hemoglobin and hematocrit, and a value below 7 could suggest a blood transfusion is needed. My patient’s value was 7.6, so she did not need a transfusion. My HTTA went pretty smoothly, and today was my turn to pass medications.
She told me it has been around for 40 years in her back. I assessed her pain score, which was an 8 out of 10. This meant that I was to give her Vicodin to treat her pain. The med pass went smoothly, and I got the chance to put on a Lidocaine patch for the first