Help, Diagnosing Acid-Base Imbalance.

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Specializes in Clinical Partner and CNA.

Hi everyone! We are learning about Acids & Bases in anatomy. Our teacher gave us a problem to work:

Mr. Jones suffered a heart attack 3 days ago. Lab results from an arterial blood sample are: pH=7.30 HCO3=20 mEq/L PCO2=36 mm Hg.

So I understand that the pH is acidosis & the HCO3 is metabolic acidosis and that the PCO2 is within normal limits.

But I'm still a little uncertain...I need some more practice. My teacher said that once we get into nursing classes that they will give us a whole sheet of these problems so we can try to figure out what levels are too high or too low. So I was wondering if anyone knows of any websites that I can get questions/problems like this?

Thanks in advance! :)

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yup, don't worry about it yet. You will cover it in med surg. I'll dig through my stuff and find a website that my instructor provided us that gave a really good explanation for interpreting ABG's and post it later. It's good info and you can print it off and save it.

I found it! See if this helps. My instructor posted it on Blackboard for us to use as extra practice.

http://www.ocalaregional.com/CPM/ABG%20self%20learning%20module%2006.pdf

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

there are a list of weblinks including abg tutorials and practice problems on post #43 of this sticky thread:

https://allnurses.com/nursing-student-assistance/pathophysiology-p-microbiology-145201.html - pathophysiology/ a & p/ microbiology/ fluid & electrolyte resources. there is a really good cheat sheet listed there that you can open up and copy off to use in interpreting abgs.

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Specializes in Clinical Partner and CNA.

Thanks! I always get confused on where to post/not post threads. Thanks for the help! :)

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