![Picture](/uploads/2/3/1/6/23163110/1394317304.jpg)
What defines a Respiratory Emergency?
A respiratory emergency requires immediate attention.
Things the nurse can do:
Keep the situation from worsening.
- Look at your patient.
- What is the oxygen saturation?
- What is the patients color: Are their lips bluish, nail beds dusky, face pale?
- Assess the breathing pattern?
- Are they using accessory muscles to breath?
- Does your patient look in panic, anxious, scared, restless?
- Does your patient have increased lethargy or confusion? (signs of increased CO2 levels)
Things the nurse can do:
- Increase the oxygen supply: increase the nasal cannula, place patient on venti-mask, non-re-breather, or BiPap breathing machine.
- Reposition the patient for optimum lung expansion.
- Call the MD, alert him of the patient's condition.
- Alert the respiratory therapist.
- If not in an ICU unit, notify the Rapid Response or Care Team for assistance.
Keep the situation from worsening.
- Respiratory distress can precede full-blown cardiopulmonary arrest, a challenge for even the most experienced nurse.
- With your knowledge and fine-tuned assessment skills, you can help identify the cause of your patient's breathing difficulty, intervene quickly and appropriately, and perhaps reverse the course of clinical deterioration.