Ventilators are the life saving machines that help the person to breathe in case of various diseases like diseases of the lungs and also diseases of the brain, where the person is not able to breathe. The inability to breathe voluntarily could be because of the disease itself, or the treating physicians could have stopped the person from breathing to avoid the patient from struggling too much. This sedation will be removed and the patient taken off the ventilator once the other systems have adequate function.
This article lists the various aspects that are developed for children who are on ventilator and the selected nursing care activities such as:
1. Maintenance of airway & breathing: The airway needs to be maintained so that the breathing is possible. There are many times when the child is in an epileptic attack or when the child has swallowed something and choking, breathing is not possible. In these situations, the maintenance of the airway and also the breathing are very important.
2. Monitoring of ventilator parameters: The ventilator is one of the modern machines and that has a lot of settings on it. Though these settings are present, it needs a human to actually monitor these parameters. This is an important function of the nurse as she has to take care and make sure that the various parameters are all right for that patient.
3. Monitoring of vital signs: The vital signs should be monitored because a patient on the ventilator can have sudden changes in the status. These sudden changes should be regularly identified and once there are some changes in the vital signs for the worse, the person should be monitored more carefully. On the other hand, if the change is for the better, the patient should be slowly weaned off the ventilator.
4. Monitoring and care of invasive lines: All the invasive lines that are on the patient should also be monitored very carefully. There are some times when the person who is on a ventilator can be very restless and this can cause the invasive lines to be removed and that should be monitored very carefully. In case these lines are removed by the patient, they should be restored as soon as possible for the person to have comprehensive treatment.
5. Maintenance of fluid and electrolyte balance: The electrolyte and the fluids should also have adequate balance in the body. This will help to maintain the health of the person. This is because if the fluids and the maintenance are not balanced, that can cause the worsening of the health of the individual.
6. Administration of drugs: Administration of drugs is also a very important aspect of the monitoring as there are various kinds of drugs that need to be monitored. Some drugs may need to be reduced in dose progressively and so if the monitoring is good, then the patient will be able to recover faster. This is the reason for the importance being accorded to the various activities for a patient who is on the ventilator.
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