Abdominal Assessment Paper

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Abdominal Assessment (GI System) Gastrointestinal (GI) system assessment should include nutritional status, such as dehydration, malnutrition, and obesity, and conditions of the mouth and nose, especially when the patient is on tube feedings. Gag reflex, swallowing ability, dentures, and gums also need to be assessed. When you assess the patient’s abdomen, use natural light to observe skin color changes, such as those from jaundice. Artificial light can be misleading in skin assessment. Stand on the right side and flex the patient’s knees using a pillow if the patient is unable to do so during assessment. You can inspect the patient’s abdomen while auscultating it; first, use the diaphragm, without applying pressure, for bowel sounds, and then use the bell to auscultate for low-pitched sounds such as abdominal bruits. Bowel sounds may be diminished or difficult to hear in critically ill patients. Start your auscultation from the right lower quadrant (RLQ) because bowel sounds are easily transmitted from this area. Normal bowel sounds may be about 5 to 30 in a minute. If they are absent or diminished, listen for 5 minutes before you document bowel sounds as absent. Auscultate for abdominal bruit in four areas: aortic, renal, iliac, and femoral. Figure 3-3 demonstrates the sites to auscultate for vascular bruit. Inspect the …show more content…

If the patient has a urinary catheter, and most ICU patients do, he or she may not have any reportable symptoms. Therefore, good assessment of urinary elimination, done in relation to a patient’s signs, symptoms, urine amount, intake and output, and lab values, is important. The lab values are discussed in Chapter 5. Acute and chronic renal failure can cause numerous systemic symptoms and altered homeostasis ( Collins, 2011). See Table 3-10 for abnormal urinary elimination. Skin Assessment

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