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29. Case: Complicated Caring
View Case Study: 29. Case: Complicated CaringMr. Sundown is a 78-year old African Nova Scotian who is a patient in an internal medicine clinical unit at the Halifax Infirmary. He has a variety of serious medical conditions including diabetes, coronary artery disease, and advanced COPD. He is experiencing progressive respiratory failure on the basis of a difficult-to-treat pneumonia. Mr. Sundown has…
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28. Case: Mind the Gap!
View Case Study: 28. Case: Mind the Gap!Mrs. Hardriver is admitted through ER to a general surgery unit for emergency surgical management of an acute small bowel obstruction secondary to her advanced colorectal cancer. After surgery, Palliative Care is consulted and they agree to admit Mrs. Hardriver to their service. As there is no palliative care bed available at the time of…
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21. Case: Balancing Concerns
View Case Study: 21. Case: Balancing Concerns“Where’s the door to my bathroom? Can’t a man get some privacy?” “Uh oh, that’s Elias again. We’d better make sure he’s alright.” “How many times are we going to have to go through this with him? Maybe we should just put the bathroom door on again.” “The only problem is that on his ‘bad’…
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18. Case: When the “Truth” is Painful
View Case Study: 18. Case: When the “Truth” is PainfulMrs. Sally Parrot, a 73-year old widow, has mild dementia of a presumed neurovascular type. She resides in her own small apartment in Serenity, a private continuing care community in Bedford, where she receives some assistance with housekeeping, meal preparation and organization of her medications. Sally is actively engaged in Serenity’s structured activities and, in…
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17. Case: Too Much to Expect?
View Case Study: 17. Case: Too Much to Expect?92-year old Ellie MacPherson has recently moved to a long-term care facility. She had found that the increasing difficulty she was experiencing due to arthritis with getting dressed, making her meals and getting out of the house meant that she could no longer live on her own. Ellie brought a number of her favourite clothes…
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14. Case: I Want to Go Home!
View Case Study: 14. Case: I Want to Go Home!A widower (age 88) lives alone, but has family living nearby. Recently he had a stroke and regained consciousness after being admitted to hospital. He was deemed to have cognitive capacity. His adult children approached the physician in charge of his case along with the unit’s Nurse Manager and requested that the patient be placed…
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10. Case: At a Crossroads…
View Case Study: 10. Case: At a Crossroads…Sandra Livingstone, age 45, was admitted to the hospital with diffuse ischemic encephalopathy – a very significant, global brain injury – secondary to sustaining a massive stroke at home. It is now ten months after her admission. Ms. Livingstone is on an acute internal medicine unit where she has been living since her discharge from…


