Nursing Diagnosis

[Happeetxn]

Howdy All,

Just a quick question. When does a fever rank higher in priority than an Impaired gas exchange or Ineffective airway clearence? And by the way if y'all are wondering what they are teaching in nursing school these days..........CPR is only chest compressions oxygenating the patient is another process. "If I was asking you about getting air into the patients lungs I would have refered to "bagging them" but I specifically asked about CPR which means chest compressions" (One of my instructors). Now I no longer know what the Pulmonary stands for in CPR. Pulmonary does refer to the respiratory system right? Lungs and all of that?

Thanks

[meownsmile, BSN, RN]

Fever would rank higher than gas exchange if the patient is already known to have a respiratory issue or infection. If the temp is continuing with antibiotic use, cultures would be in order with sensitivity to see if the correct antibiotic is being used.

And i would hope that your CPR training is including ventilation or you may have some patients die if you dont include pulmonary ventilation. Not much use in doing chest compression if there isnt enough oxygen in the blood to ciruclate huh? Im not sure what is up with that.

[purplemania, BSN, RN]

Based on what you have stated, I do not agree with your instructor. CPR is Cardiopulmonary, not just cardio. The purpose is to circulate O2, so both the lungs and the heart need to be functioning or supported. And I agree with you, a fever would not take precedence over lack of O2. Get them breathing then worry about what is causing the fever. I think your instincts are sound.

[Happeetxn]

Thanks for the reply Meow and Purplemania. I have searched thru all of the material I could find concerning Nursing Diagnosis Priorities, and posted on here as a "just in case I missed something" precaution.

As for the CPR not involving the respiratory aspect, our instructor does not want to give us credit for a test question that came down to the answers of begin CPR or defibrilate the patient first. All of my training so far (EMT-B, EMT-P, Red Cross CPR and Safety Instructor) contradicts what this instructor is saying. As side note this is just one of many pieces of infromation she has given that is incorrect. Another example is using calcium gluconate to treat hypercalcemia. When presented with two seperate text books that gave different treatments the instructor said the texts were wrong.

[CoolhandHutch, MSN, RN]

I don't think a fever ever ranks higher than anything related to airway/gas exchange. Even if the fever causes seizures, your training as an EMT-P teaches what for your first priority? ABC....