Ensuring Breathing Comfort at the End of Life: The Integral Role of the Critical Care Nurse

Abstract

This article describes the author’s program of clinical research focused on assessment and treatment of respiratory distress among critically ill patients at the end of life. Dyspnea is a subjective experience of breathing discomfort that occurs in the presence of cardiopulmonary and neuromuscular diseases. Dyspnea is one of the most common and most distressing symptoms experienced by critically ill patients. Many critically ill patients, particularly those not expected to survive, become cognitively impaired or unconscious and lose the ability to report symptoms, although dyspnea can be known only from a patient’s report. When self-reporting ability is lost, the critical care nurse must rely on signs indicative of a patient’s respiratory distress. The critically ill patient unable to self-report is vulnerable to under-recognition of symptom distress and subsequent over-treatment or undertreatment. When the patient is dying, there is only 1 chance to optimize the assessment and treatment of symptoms.

Concept Analysis of the Nursing Diagnosis of Impaired Spontaneous Ventilation in Critical Patients

“…It is characterized by a subjective experience of respiratory distress that presents itself in different sensations and may vary in intensity (22). The other attributes found were anxiety (9,13,15,16,19,25,29), agitation (10,13,15,16,17), sweating (10,13,15), hypoxemia (11,27), and hypercapnia (37).…”

“…It consists of 8 items, where each variable is scored from 0 to 2 points, at the end the points are added, and may range from 0 to 16. The scale scores range from 0 to 2, which suggests the absence of respiratory distress, a score of 3 indicates mild distress, a score of 4 to 6 suggests moderate distress, and a score of 7 or more indicates a severe level of distress(22).…”