Learning Objectives
- Identify the classifications and actions of respiratory system drugs
- Provide examples of when, how, and to whom respiratory system drugs may be administered
- Identify the side effects and special considerations associated with respiratory system drugs
- Include considerations and implications of using respiratory system drugs across the lifespan
- Include evidence-based concepts when using the nursing process and clinical reasoning related to medications that affect the respiratory system
Key Terms
Gas Exchange Introduction
Every year millions of Canadians visit their health care provider for respiratory diseases such as allergies, asthma, bronchitis, common cold, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and pneumonia.
Respiratory diseases are a major public health concern in Canada. The cost of chronic respiratory diseases has a great impact on health care costs in Canada. Currently, 3 million people in Canada, about 9.5% of Canada’s population, have asthma. Interestingly, 2 million adults have been diagnosed with COPD, and approximately 1.5 million people have not yet been diagnosed. The burden of respiratory diseases affects individuals and their families, schools, workplaces, neighborhoods, and cities. Improving health surveillance efforts will help to support and design new policies and programs that will positively impact the effects of these diseases on Canadians. The Canadian Chronic Disease Surveillance System (CCDSS) researches and identifies data on chronic diseases such as asthma and COPD to seek further solutions for the improvement of health for diagnosed Canadians.[1]
As you transition through this chapter and begin the section on medications to treat, you will notice that multiple medication classifications are discussed but there is only one medication card to be completed per chapter. These medication cards were developed as a guide for you to use in your own practice to build you own medication cards. There is a section that provides these tools in a word format for you to download and edit as needed. But before we look at the medications, let’s review the anatomy and physiology.
Allergies occur when the immune system reacts to a foreign substance and makes antibodies that identify a particular allergen as harmful, even though it isn't.
Allergies occur when the immune system reacts to a foreign substance and makes antibodies that identify a particular allergen as harmful, even though it isn't.
A way that we think and process our knowledge including what we have read or learned in the past and apply it to the current practice context of what we are seeing right now.
A bluish or purplish discoloration (as of skin) due to deficient oxygenation of the blood.
The process at the alveoli level where blood is oxygenated and carbon dioxide, the waste product of cellular respiration, is removed from the body.
A deficiency of color especially of the face: paleness.
An effect that is opposite to what is expected.
The total number of breaths, or respiratory cycles, that occur each minute. A child under 1 year of age has a normal respiratory rate between 30 and 60 breaths per minute, but by the time a child is about 10 years old, the normal rate is closer to 18 to 30. By adolescence, the normal respiratory rate is similar to that of adults, 12 to 18 breaths per minute.
Matter expectorated from the respiratory system and especially the lungs that is composed of mucus but may contain pus, blood, fibrin, or microorganisms (such as bacteria) in diseased states.
