• Skip to main content
  • Skip to after header navigation
  • Skip to site footer
The Nursing Prof

The Nursing Prof

Nursing tutoring and certification coaching
(330) 238-3172
Mon-Fri 9am – 5pm EST
  • Improve Your Clinical Care
  • Get Certified
  • Ace Nursing School
  • Learning Resources
    • Videos
    • Blog
    • The Nurse Tutor Podcast
    • Recommended Resources
  • About Dr. Woodruff
  • Contact

Atelectasis

You are here: Home / Certification Tips / Atelectasis
September 8, 2019 by David Woodruff

Atelectasis is a common complication of bed rest. Diminished breath sounds in the bases of the lungs are not normal findings — plan interventions to avoid atelectasis in your patients. Atelectasis is a natural phenomenon because patients are immobile. If the patient is not moving around, they’re in bed, and they have the head of the bed up 30 degrees, then secretions are going to collect in the bases. What tends to happen is that secretions pool in the bases in the back and atelectasis develops with diminished breath sounds.

Think about the patients on your floor. How many of them have diminished breath sounds in the bases? Probably all of them. But, it’s not a normal finding. Whenever you see that, whenever you document it, you need to record some resolution for atelectasis and diminished breath sounds. What is that resolution going to be? Mobilizing your patient, and if the patient can’t get up and ambulate, then you need to turn and position the patient and have them do their deep breathing exercises.

But rather than coupling deep breathing with coughing, because we’re talking about the bases here, and coughing tends to cause bronchial construction in the terminal bronchi.

That may trap the secretions. Have the patient do a forced expiration; that’s a forceful exhalation, and the way I like to describe it to patients is to tell them to pretend like you’re blowing out the candles on a birthday cake.

That’s deep breathing and forced exhalation. Coughing is better when you have the secretions in the higher airways. You can also have your patient use incentive spirometry.

Besides, the patient must remain hydrated to keep secretions loose, and they will continue to mobilize. Again, atelectasis is not a normal finding in your patient; you need to do something about it, and if you do, your patients will be in much better shape.

Related

Category: Certification Tips

About David Woodruff

David W. Woodruff, PhD, APRN, CNE, CNE-cl, CCRN-K, PCCN-K, CEN, FNAP is

A Critical Care nurse:
-For over 30 years
Certified in:
-Critical Care and Progressive Care Nursing
-Emergency Nursing
-Professional Staff Development and Nurse Education
A Nursing Expert:
-Clinical Editor of “Critical Care Nursing Made Incredibly Easy”
-Contributing Editor for Critical Care Nurse
-Reviewer for Dimensions in Critical Care Nursing.
-A Fellow and Distinguished Practitioner in the National Academies of Practice.
An Experienced Teacher:
-Developed CCRN Test Prep & PCCN Test Prep, which has been copied by institutions all over the US.
-Led hundreds of seminars, conferences, and virtual programs on certification preparation.

Dr. David Woodruff is The Certification Coach®, who will help you become certified.

Previous Post:Not “just a nurse”
Next Post:Consider PE

Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • The way it was?
  • Nursing Care of COVID Patients
  • Free Radicals
  • Family Involvement in ICU Delirium Detection
  • VTE in COVID Infection

Archives

  • May 2022
  • November 2020
  • July 2020
  • May 2020
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019

Categories

  • Certification Tips
  • Nursing Tips
  • Pathophysiology
  • Podcast
  • Professional
  • Teaching Nursing
  • Uncategorized
Get nursing tips from Dr. Woodruff

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.
Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.
You can unsubscribe to opt-out at any time.
See a sample here.
FacebookLinkedinTwitter YouTube
Better Business Bureau
The Nursing Prof, LLC
1530 Northwood Avenue
Alliance, OH 44601
(330) 238-3172
Copyright © 2023 · The Nursing Prof · All Rights Reserved