Three essentials for nursing students managing ventilator patients: do a full head-to-toe assessment including blood gases and alarm checks, prevent ventilator-associated pneumonia with oral care and suctioning protocols, and keep emergency equipment ready for extubation or power loss.
Hey there friend. In this video, I'm giving you three things you must know when learning about mechanical ventilators in nursing school. If you're studying critical care in nursing school, listen up because you have got to know these things. Tip number three is a must know. You do not want to miss it, so stick around until the end and I will tell you what it is. It might just show up on one of your nursing school exams, so let's dive in. So the first thing that you have to do to know when taking care of a patient on a mechanical ventilator is how to do a full nursing head to toe assessment. Patients in a critical care setting, and especially patients who are on a mechanical ventilator, are very, very vulnerable. They often can't tell you when something's wrong. It is your job as a nursing student to figure it out. And this is where your amazing nursing assessment skills come in. You need to be assessing for mental status changes, possible pressure, a pressure ulcer could develop on one of their bony prominences, monitoring their breathing and hemodynamics, making sure their blood is circulating properly, that their ABG values are within an expected range, and making sure that the ventilator settings and the alarms are all set properly. There's a lot to assess for in a patient on a ventilator, but do not forget you are an amazing nursing student. You know more than you think you do. So have confidence in your skills. Be thorough. Thorough and speak up if you notice if something just seems off. Now to make this easier for you, I have a free cheat sheet to give to you that walks you through step by step. The Head to Toe Assessment for Nursing. This is a full head to toe nursing assessment transcript that you can print off and use as a guide when you're assessing your patients. It's pretty stinking awesome. You're going to love it. I put that link down below in the description for you to snag it now. Must know tip number two is to watch for infection. Friend. If I could scream it from the rooftops, I would. You have got to assess your patient and prevent infections. Don't be sloppy. Your patients, and especially your patients on mechanical ventilators are very vulnerable to infections, especially ventilator associated pneumonia. But please provide good mouth care to your patients and follow your facility policy for suctioning and for taking care of the ventilator tubing. We don't want a ton of condensation to build up in that tubing because that could lead to lung infections. So make sure that you are taking those precautions to help prevent infection. Now, the last one we're going to talk about here might just be the most important and it might just show up in your exams. So I'll get to that in a minute. So, but before we do, I want to know, is critical care nursing your jam? Or is there another nursing specialty that you want to go into? Maybe you want to be a pediatric nurse or work in labor and delivery or in hospice? Let me know down in the comments what type of nursing that you want to do. Now on to tip number three is to always have emergency equipment ready and in the room at all times. You have to make sure that you have a way to get oxygen to your patients if they pull that endotracheal tube out too soon or if the power goes out or something else crazy happens. You must be prepared always. So if this happens, follow your facility policy of course, but typically you will call for help, have a bag ready and if their oxygen saturations drop, start manually ventilating with 100% oxygen. As a nurse you are always constantly critically thinking, planning ahead and preparing for everything. I hope these three Must know ventilator tips helped you out. If they did, write love in the comments below and subscribe to this channel so you never miss out on any other must know nursing school tips and tricks that I've got for you. And don't forget to get your free nursing assessment transcript. It's a step by step head to toe assessment transcript that you can follow and use as a guide for your nursing assessments. It's pretty stinking amazing. You are going to love it so be sure to check it out. I put that link down in the description of this video. Now click on the next video. In this series you can keep rocking critical care nursing for nursing school and go become the nurse that God created only you to be. I'll see you over there.
