This interactive lecture examines breathing, ventilation, and oxygenation. Caring for a trauma patient experiencing respiratory difficulty includes maintaining a patent airway, administering supplemental oxygen, supporting and monitoring the patient’s ventilations, and recognizing and decompression tension pneumothorax.
After completing this course, the practitioner will be able to:
Explain the physiology of breathing.
Apply the assessment of breathing in a trauma patient.
Identify common injuries that affect breathing.
Explain the mechanisms by which supplemental oxygen and ventilatory support are beneficial to the trauma patient.
Select the most effective means of providing ventilatory support of a trauma patient in a given scenario.
Develop a plan for airway management and ventilation for various trauma patients presented in given scenarios.
Compare the risks versus benefits when discussing new invasive airway procedures.
List the indications and limitations of end-tidal carbon dioxide (ETCO2) monitoring in the trauma patient.
Practitioners who successfully complete the Breathing, Ventilation, and Oxygenation of the Trauma Patient (BLS Edition) course are eligible for 0.5 hours of continuing education.
