Assess Respiratory Function

You are caring for a client admitted with chronic bronchitis. The client is having difficulty breathing, and the family asks you what causes this difficulty. What would be your best response?

"Conditions such as chronic bronchitis cause thickening of the bronchial mucosa so it makes it harder to breathe."

The nurse working in the radiology clinic is assisting with a pulmonary angiography. The nurse knows that when monitoring clients after a pulmonary angiography, what should the physician be notified about?

Absent distal pulses

The nurse is caring for a client with recurrent hemoptysis who has undergone a bronchoscopy. Immediately following the procedure, the nurse should complete which action?

Assess the client for a cough reflex

A new ICU nurse is observed by her preceptor entering a patient's room to suction the tracheostomy after performing the task 15 minutes before. What should the preceptor educate the new nurse to do to ensure that the patient needs to be suctioned?

Auscultate the lung for adventitious sounds

The nurse inspects the thorax of a patient with advanced emphysema. The nurse expects chest configuration changes consistent with a deformity known as:

Barrel chest

Which assessment finding would be most consistent with advanced emphysema?

Barrel-shaped chest

The nurse is assessing the lungs of a patient diagnosed with pulmonary edema. Which of the following would be expected upon auscultation?

Crackles at lung bases

The nurse is caring for a patient with a pulmonary disorder. What observation by the nurse is indicative of a very late symptom of hypoxia?

Cyanosis

For air to enter the lungs (process of ventilation), the intrapulmonary pressure must be less than atmospheric pressure so air can be pulled inward. Select the movement of respiratory muscles that makes this happen during inspiration

Diaphragm contracts and elongates the chest cavity

The nurse is educating a patient with COPD about technique for performing pursed-lip breathing. What does the nurse inform the patient is the important of using this technique?

It prolongs exhalation

Upon palpation of the sinus area, what would the nurse identify as a normal finding?

No sensation during palpation

The student nurse is learning breath sounds while listening to a client in the physician's office. An experienced nurse is assisting and notes air movement over the trachea to the upper lungs. The air movement is noted equally on inspiration as expiration. Which breath sounds would the nurse document?

Normal bronchovesicular sounds

The nurse is taking a respiratory history for a patient who has come into the clinic with a chronic cough. What information should the nurse obtain from this patient? (Select all that apply.)

Previous history of lung disease in the patient or family Occupational and environmental influences Previous history of smoking

The nurse is caring for a client diagnosed with asthma. While performing the shift assessment, the nurse auscultates breath sounds including sibilant wheezes, which are continuous musical sounds. What characteristics describe sibilant wheezes?

They can be heard during inspiration and expiration

the nurse is caring for a client diagnosed with asthma. While performing the shift assessment, the nurse auscultates breath sounds including sibilant wheezes, which are continuous musical sounds. What characteristics describe sibilant wheezes?

They can be heard during inspiration and expiration

A client with a suspected pulmonary disorder undergoes pulmonary function tests. To interpret test results accurately, the nurse must be familiar with the terminology used to describe pulmonary functions. Which term refers to the volume of air inhaled or exhaled during each respiratory cycle?

Tidal Volume

a nurse assesses a client's respiratory status. Which observation indicates that the client is having difficulty breathing?

Use of accessory muscles

A nurse caring for a patient with a pulmonary embolism understands that a high ventilation-perfusion ratio may exist. What does this mean for the patient?

Ventilation exceeds perfusion

The nurse documents breath sounds that are soft, with inspiratory sounds longer than expiratory and found over the periphery of the lungs. Which of the following will the nurse chart?

Vesicular

The nurse is performing chest auscultation for a patient with asthma. How does the nurse describe the high-pitched, sibilant, musical sounds that are heard?

Wheezes

During assessment of the respiratory system, the nurse inspects and palpates the trachea in order to assess: trachea?

deviation from the midline.

The nurse is completing a physical assessment of a client's trachea. The nurse inspects and palpates the trachea for

deviation from the midline.

A client has been newly diagnosed with emphysema. The nurse should explain to the client that by definition, ventilation:

is breathing air in and out of the lungs

The nurse auscultates the lung sounds of a client during a routine assessment. The sounds produced are harsh and cracking, sounding like two pieces of leather being rubbed together. The nurse would be correct in documenting this finding as

pleural friction rub

The amount of air inspired and expired with each breath is called:

tidal volume

The volume of air inhaled and exhaled with each breath is termed

tidal volume

You are caring for a client admitted with chronic bronchitis. The client is having difficulty breathing and the family asks you what causes difficulty. What would be your best response?

Conditions such as chronic bronchitis cause thickening of the bronchial mucosa so it makes it harder to breathe.

A client appears to be breathing faster than during the last assessment. Which of the following inventions should the nurse perform?

Count the rate of respirations

A client appears to be breathing faster than during the last assessment. Which of the following interventions should the nurse perform?

Count the rate of respirations.

A son brings his father into the clinic, stating that his father's color has changed to bluish around the mouth. The father is confused, with a respiratory rate of 28 breaths per minute and scattered crackles throughout. The son states this condition just occurred within the last hour. Which of the following factors indicates that the client's condition has lasted for more than 1 hour?

Cyanosis

The nurse instructor is talking with senior nursing students about diagnostic procedures used in respiratory diseases. The instructor discusses amniocentesis, defining it as a procedure perform for diagnostic purposes or to aspirate accumulated excess fluid or air from the pleural space would the instructor tell the students purulent fluid indicates

Infection

The client has just had an invasive procedure to assess the respiratory system. What does the nurse know should be assessed on this client?

Respiratory distress

A client arrives at the physician's office stating 2 days of febrile illness, dyspnea, and cough. Upon assisting the client into a gown, the nurse notes that the client's sternum is depressed, especially on inspiration. Crackles are noted in the bases of the lung fields. Based on inspection, which will the nurse document?

The client has a funnel chest.

A nurse is concerned that a client may develop postoperative atelectasis. Which nursing diagnosis would be most appropriate if this complication occurs?

impaired gas exchange

While auscultating the lungs of a client with asthma, the nurse hears a continuous, high-pitched whistling sound on expiration. The nurse will document this sound as which of the following?

Wheezes

Which is a deformity of the chest that occurs as a result of overinflation of the lungs?

Barrel chest

A client presents to the emergency department with fluid overload. The nurse is concerned with fluid accumulation in the lungs. On which of the following areas would the nurse focus the lung assessment?

Bilateral lower lobes

The instructor of the pre-nursing physiology class is explaining respiration to the class. What does the instructor explain is the main function of respiration?

To exchange oxygen and CO2 between the atmospheric air and the blood and between the blood and the cells