Adult Ventilation Management
7.9 Contact Hours
To successfully complete this course and receive your certificate, you must read the content online or in the downloadable PDF, pass the post test with a 70% or better, and complete the evaluation form by June 30, 2021.
You will only be asked to pay for the course if you decide to grade the post examination to earn a certificate with contact hours.
Corexcel is accredited as a provider of continuing nursing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation (ANCC).
It is Corexcel's policy to ensure fair balance, independence, objectivity, and scientific rigor in all programming. In compliance with the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) we require that faculty disclose all financial relationships with commercial interests over the past 12 months.
No planning committee member has indicated a relevant financial relationship with a commercial interest involved with the content contained in this course.
Corexcel's provider status through ANCC is limited to educational activities. Neither Corexcel nor the ANCC endorse commercial products.
Course Objectives
After completing this course participants should be able to:
- Define mechanical ventilation.
- Identify three clinical situations in which mechanical ventilation may be used.
- Describe the role of the respiratory therapist in the management of mechanically ventilated patients.
- List six types of artificial airways and the indications for each one.
- Describe the nurse’s responsibilities before, during, and after intubation.
- Identify three alternative means of communication for patients with artificial airways.
- Describe three different ventilator settings.
- Describe three different ventilator modes.
- List three potential causes for a high-pressure alarm.
- List two nursing interventions for a high respiratory rate alarm.
- List three types of non-invasive mechanical ventilation.
- Describe proper nursing care of an endotracheal tube.
- Describe proper nursing care of a tracheostomy tube.
- Describe the correct procedure for sterile suctioning.
- Identify two indications for sedating and pharmacologically paralyzing a mechanically ventilated patient.
- Define train-of-four and describe the correct procedure for testing.
- Identify four parameters that must be monitored while patients are mechanically ventilated.
- Identify five nursing interventions for a patient who is accidentally extubated.
- Define ventilator weaning.
- Compare and contrast two different weaning methods.
- Identify three criteria that indicate when the patient is ready to be extubated.
- Describe proper post-extubation nursing care.
Adult Ventilation Management
You’re charting at the ICU nurses’ station when you hear the code siren sound. You run to room 220 and find that Mr. Hill, a 68-year-old man admitted yesterday for acute respiratory failure, has respiratory arrested. One nurse is trying to ventilate Mr. Hill with a manual resuscitation bag, but she’s having a hard time keeping his airway open and bagging at the same time. You hear the air rushing out around the mask, and you don’t see his chest rising. Another nurse is trying to find the endotracheal tubes in the crash cart. A nursing assistant is attempting to shove a backboard under Mr. Hill, in case chest compressions are needed. A third nurse is charting furiously on the code record. In the midst of the chaos, no one else notices that Mr. Hill isn’t receiving adequate ventilation. You grab the mask with both hands to ensure a tight seal and tilt his head back to open the airway. The nurse who is bagging looks relieved when you both see his chest rise and hear a "whoosh" enter his lungs.
Most of us have been certified in Basic Life Support for a long time. Airway, breathing, and circulation are second nature, but sometimes we have to be reminded of the importance, and the order, of the ABCs. This article will focus on the airway and breathing components. Most of the discussion will be on initiating, managing, and weaning mechanical ventilation, but we’ll also review the various types of airways and the indications for each one. Along the way, we’ll follow Mr. Hill through his hospital stay. Hopefully, your expert nursing care will help him recover enough to go home!