Use of morphine for tachypnea

Nurses General Nursing

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I'm a student nurse. In clinical recently, a patient developed tachypnea. This was thought to be due to CHF. Oxygen was given, and morphine was administered for its respiratory depressive effects. I understand that we gave the morphine to prevent the patient from exhausting himself and to ease his work of breathing. I'm trying to wrap my head around pharmacologically reducing the patient's RR when it is his body trying to compensate for lack of oxygen. Is this action always appropriate for tachypnea? Thank you in advance for sharing your experiences!

Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
:throcomp:http://tinyurl.com/35aecd5 :rolleyes:
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thank you so much everyone! i'm so excited to think that one day, it will happen. i'll be able to think critically through these situations for myself:) until then, thank you for the support!

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