Shock happens when organs don't get enough blood flow. Distributive shock is caused by vasodilation, where blood vessels widen so much that blood moves too slowly to reach tissues properly, even though blood volume is normal. Sepsis is the main cause because it triggers widespread vasodilation.
Hey there, friend. I'm Christina Rafano from nursingschoolofsuccess.com and in this video, we are going to talk about one of the types of shock that you need to know about in nursing school, and that is distributive shock. Now, distributive shock is really one of the harder types of shock to understand. So we're gonna break it all down for you, super simple, so that you can actually remember it and learn it and understand it, so you can go ace your nursing school exams. And of course, I have a free cheat sheet all about shock for you to download. So make sure that you hang out until the end of the video and I will let you know where you can snag that. And if you need more help with the cardiac system or with shock, be sure to check out all of our other videos to help you out with that. And don't forget to subscribe and hit that bell so you never miss out on any other video that we have here. Alrighty. So before we dive into distributing of shock specifically, we need to talk about what shock actually is. So shock really is a lack of blood flow that can lead to organ failure and death. So when you think of shock, you should be thinking of a lack of blood flow, and this means a lack of blood flow to the heart, to the brain, the kidneys, the liver, tissues, and all of the other organs in the body. Everywhere, really. So shock simply is a lack of blood flow. And this lack of blood flow makes all of the organs very unhappy because they're not getting the blood that they need to function. So now that we understand that shock is just a lack of blood flow to the organs, let's talk about distributive shock specifically, which is one of the types of shock. Distributive shock can be tricky to identify sometimes. So I'm going to break it down super easy for you, to make it easy for you to remember and understand. There's one word that you should always associate with distributive shock, and that one word is vasodilation. Distributive shock simply means vasodilation, meaning that the blood vessels are dilating. So let's break this down. Distributive shock happens when there is technically enough blood inside the blood vessels, but the blood just can't distribute. See what I did there? It can't distribute that blood to the organs. And the number one problem for this is vasodilation. So the blood vessels are dilating, and when the blood vessels Dilate the blood can't move through as fast. And it's much more difficult for the heart to pump that blood because there's just so much space and there's not enough pressure to help that blood move through the vessels. So let's put a visual to this. So I don't know about you, but when I wash my hands, I tend to turn up the water faucet, like way up. Like, I usually just up spraying myself with water, because if you just turn it on just a little, it just kind of like trickles out so slowly, you know, and who has time for that, right? So I crank it up. So when there's less water relative to the size of the pipes, it takes longer for the water to get out. And that's exactly what's happening here with distributive shock. Even though there's the same amount of blood in the body that there was before, the blood vessels now are larger, they're dilated. So it takes longer for the blood to get to where it needs to go. Your organs. So distributive shock is caused by vasodilation. When your blood vessels dilate, the blood just can't get to the organs. And the organs, they may start to fail. So the number one cause of distributive shock is sepsis, because sepsis causes a lot of vasodilation. Now, if you need a refresher on sepsis, be sure to check that video out and I'll put a link to that in the description below. So when you think of distributive shock, think vasodilation, and that is your crash course on distributive shock. Distributive shock just means that there is so much vasodilation in the body that the blood just can't get to where it needs to go. And the organs become very unhappy because they just aren't getting the blood flow that they need and they start to fail. So that is distributive shock. And like I promised, I've got a free cheat sheet just for you to download. And I will put a link to that in the description below this video. Now, if you like this video, let me know. Hit that like button, share it with your friends. And of course, be sure to subscribe and hit that bell so you never miss a video. Thank you so much for being here, my friend. Now go become the nurse that God created only you to be, and I will catch you right back here next time on the nursing school show. Take care.
