How would you manage this patient?

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Dennis is a 21 year old male, who has a past history of asthma. His asthma is normally well controlled and he is otherwise well. Dennis has been in hospital a once before with an exacerbation of asthma, brought on by a chest infection. He has had a productive cough for the last 2-3 days and has been feeling a little more breathless than normal.

Dennis normally takes a brown inhaler twice a day and a blue inhaler when he needs it. Recently he have been taking the blue inhaler more often as he has been more wheezy than normal. The inhaler ran out last night, and his signs and symptoms have become acute.

  1. How would you perform a respiratory assessment for this patient
  2. What do the colours of inhalers refer to? Are there other colours?
  3. What would your education to Dennis be?
  4. How would your management change if Dennis stated that he is a smoker?
  5. Outline the use, indication and flow rates of nasal prongs, a simple face mask, and non-rebreather masks

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Do you have any ideas? Let us know what you have so far and someone may be willing to supplement with other thoughts.

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Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

More to the point: We will not do your homework for you. Happy to tweak or offer opinions on what you've already done, but all you've done so far is give US an assignment.

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When in doubt, research the guidelines.

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