ABG Help!

Elenaster · Feb 14, 2004

Am teaching ABG's soon to my ADN student class. :uhoh21: Does anyone have any suggestions for teaching COMPENSATION? (For instance, ABG: pH 7.55, PaCO2 23, HCO3 20: respiratory alkalosis partially compensated.) Can teach ABG's pretty well up to that point, but when it gets to compensation, then it gets murky. Any help/ advice/ ideas pointers would be MOST appreciated :kiss

I used to make a chart with arrows pointing up and down. For instance, in your example your pH is up, paCO2 is down and your HCO3 is down and that combination of arrows equals partially compensated respiratory alkalosis. For uncompensated you would have and up arrow for pH, down arrow for CO2 and and sideways(normal) arrow for HCO3. For fully compensated, you would have a sideways arrow for pH and down arrows for both your CO2 and HCO3.

Does that make any sense? It actually works pretty well, especially for those that are more "visual" learners, but it's hard to describe in a narrative format.

hmccartn · Feb 14, 2004

I just finished my medicine class in nursing school and the way my prof taught ABG's and compensation was to make a tic-tac-toe looking board with

acid/ Normal/ Alkaline along the top 3 squares. Then we had to look at the ph, CO2 and HCO3 levels and place them in the slots below... so respiratory alkalosis uncompensated would have HCO3 in the normal column, PH in the alkaline column and CO2 in the alkaline column...if the HCO3 were in the acid column then partial compensation would have occured...if the PH were back in the normal section..then it is fully compensated... i dont know if this makes any sense or if you can use it but...during our tests our fellow students would make these tic-tac-toe boxes and i find i use it in my current clinicals... best of luck...

VickyRN, MSN, DNP, RN · Feb 14, 2004

I used to make a chart with arrows pointing up and down. For instance, in your example your pH is up, paCO2 is down and your HCO3 is down and that combination of arrows equals partially compensated respiratory alkalosis. For uncompensated you would have and up arrow for pH, down arrow for CO2 and and sideways(normal) arrow for HCO3. For fully compensated, you would have a sideways arrow for pH and down arrows for both your CO2 and HCO3.
Does that make any sense? It actually works pretty well, especially for those that are more "visual" learners, but it's hard to describe in a narrative format.

Thanks! This is a BIG help!

VickyRN, MSN, DNP, RN · Feb 14, 2004

I just finished my medicine class in nursing school and the way my prof taught ABG's and compensation was to make a tic-tac-toe looking board with
acid/ Normal/ Alkaline along the top 3 squares. Then we had to look at the ph, CO2 and HCO3 levels and place them in the slots below... so respiratory alkalosis uncompensated would have HCO3 in the normal column, PH in the alkaline column and CO2 in the alkaline column...if the HCO3 were in the acid column then partial compensation would have occured...if the PH were back in the normal section..then it is fully compensated... i dont know if this makes any sense or if you can use it but...during our tests our fellow students would make these tic-tac-toe boxes and i find i use it in my current clinicals... best of luck...

Thank you, I will try this also!

pmanrnbflo · Feb 14, 2004

paCo2 and HCo3 arrows pointing in the same diretion equals compensation. I just learned this in my pathophys class

barb4575 · Feb 14, 2004

Vicky,

If you go to this message board and do a search on "Wendie", you will find her explanation of ABG's...best explanation I have seen to date and I use it for my students. Hope it helps you.

Barbara

VickyRN, MSN, DNP, RN · Feb 15, 2004

Vicky,
If you go to this message board and do a search on "Wendie", you will find her explanation of ABG's...best explanation I have seen to date and I use it for my students. Hope it helps you.
Barbara

Thanks! I'll do that!