This post will focus on nursing care for individuals with asthma. Whether or not you're a nurse, it still may be useful in understanding what to expect from your nursing care team if you, or someone you know has asthma.
Let's start with a summary of the the nursing care for individuals with asthma by breaking it down into assessment, therapeutic interventions and education. Here are some examples under each category.
Assessment: Monitoring breath sounds, respiration rate and rhythm, vital signs, and presence of a cough.
Therapeutic Interventions: Medication administration, suggesting the sitting position for most effective breathing, use of a pillow when coughing, use of incentive spirometry and ambulation to maintain lung expansion and to prevent mucus buildup (in a hospital setting), and use of humidifier if indicated.
Education: Teaching techniques for medication administration including the use of a spacer, explaining side effects and dosing regiment, teaching what environmental factors may be asthma triggers and suggestions for how to record when symptoms are worse to narrow down specific triggers to the individual.
In addition to assessment, interventions, and education the nurse may also play an important role in communicating with respiratory therapy, or a physician.
As we've discussed in previous blogs, the use of medication can be critical in asthma care and is a big part of nursing support for patients with asthma. Here's a table that summarizes the asthma medications:
For a complete guide to nursing care for individuals with asthma, check out this website: https://www.nasn.org/ToolsResources/Asthma
The website acts as a toolkit with links to other sites that share research on asthma, continued education opportunities and specifics for asthma in children for not only nurses, but schools and families as well.
Resources:
Asthma Medications Chart - Health Insurance Quotes. (n.d.). Retrieved February 21, 2015, from http://healthtipsinsurance.com/stories/24085/Asthma-Medications-Chart.html
EHS: Nursing Diagnosis Care Plans, 4/e - Airway Clearance, Ineffective. (n.d.). Retrieved February 21, 2015, from http://www1.us.elsevierhealth.com/MERLIN/Gulanick/archive/Constructor/gulanick03.html
Asthma Online Tool Kit. (n.d.). Retrieved February 21, 2015, from https://www.nasn.org/ToolsResources/Asthma
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