A nursing instructor breaks down an asthma care plan with three core diagnoses: impaired gas exchange, ineffective airway clearance, and ineffective breathing pattern. She connects each to pathophysiology, lists assessment findings like low oxygen saturation and abnormal breath sounds, then walks through patient goals and specific nursing interventions from monitoring vitals to teaching inhaler technique.
Let's walk through a nursing care plan for asthma. So during asthma, what we have is impaired gas exchange, there's ineffective airway clearance and an ineffective breathing pattern. Those are some possible nursing diagnoses that you can use. And because those those airways are really constricting, we've got inflammation, we've got bronchial secretions, and then obstruction of the airway are the related two factors. So those are really the pathophysiology behind what's happening here in asthma. So anytime you think of that related to factor, I want you to be thinking the patho. That's really going to impress your nursing instructors if you can clearly talk about what is actually happening in the patient's body that's causing that nursing diagnosis that's causing the problem in the first place. And then we have the as evidenced by section where we have Kinsey cough, decreased oxygen saturation, increased work of breathing, increased respiratory rate, adventitious breath sounds, and abnormal EBG results. That's just all because of that lack of airflow and the oxygenation to the body into the tissues. And then we have our patient goals. So anytime we're writing a care plan, we want to make goals for a patient to help them to feel better. So possible patient goals for asthma could be the patient will maintain a patent airway, so an open airway airway and decrease their work of breathing. Patient can have improved aeration. They'll understand the medications and the rationales for them so that they can take them as prescribed. And then the patient understands how to identify and avoid possible triggers to maintain their respiratory status. Asthma can have multiple different triggers for each specific patient. And everyone's different. So figuring out what their underlying trigger is for that specific patient is going to be really important. And then understanding the importance of deep breathing and coughing exercises to help again, clear those airways and keep them clear. And then we have your nursing interventions. So the last one was goals. Now we have the things that you can do as the nurse. So these are written as the nurse will, so you can continue to monitor their respiratory status, monitor their vital signs, administer medications as ordered, advocate for your patient for other medications as needed, educate the patient on their medications and the proper use of them, such as using a spacer, how to use their inhalers properly so that they get that medication all down to their lungs in the right order and in the right way. And then encouraging deep breathing exercises and coughing exercises. Those could also be some possible nursing interventions.
