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(BreAna) Scenario 1: Respiratory Distress

Brenda N.

Kaelynn H.

Jason M.

Kimberly B.

Dayanara B.

Iveth D.

1 Initial Assessment:

• – Ask the parent about the child’s medical history

• – Have them give more explanation about what symptoms their child has been

  experiencing

• – What activities the child was doing before showing any symptoms

• – Also ask them if their child recently was dealing with any illness or injuries

• – Ask if the child had any recent operations

2 Prioritization

• Based on the symptoms presented, determine the urgency of the child’s condition using triage protocols. Explain why you categorized the patient as emergent, urgent, or non-urgent.

• Symptoms: difficulty breathing, a persistent cough, & high fever for the past two days

  Based on the symptoms presented, the child’s condition is likely emergent. We need to see how serious their breathing problem is and we need to give them the right treatment to ensure their safety. If we put them in emergent care, healthcare professionals will treat them quickly.

3. Vital Signs Assessment:

-Check Weight and Height

-Check her oxygen levels with the oxygen meter

-Check her respiration rate, checking if it is normal or irregular

-Check her temperature to see how high her fever is

-Check Blood Pressure

-Check her pain level

-Her heart rate is important to check because we have to know if it is normal,to low, or to high

When checking all the vital signs we should make sure to make her feel comfortable because we don’t want to worsen her condition.

Each step of taking vital signs we should always tell her what we are doing so that we don’t cause her any worries but also make sure to not get her tired.

When taking the vital signs of this specific patient we should take them while she is in a position that she can breathe better in.

4. Immediate Interventions:

• – Comfort is an intervention that is necessary for this child because she is experiencing a hard time. This will help ease her distress and prevent any further difficulties/complications.
  

• – Positioning the child the proper way is an immediate intervention that is needed. The 3-year old is having difficulty breathing so helping the child adjust their position can make a difference in the way they breathe. By adjusting their position that can be seen by using special positions that will make it easier for the child to breathe.
  

– Continuous support and reassurance is an intervention that is necessary for the child because it will help reduce stress/anxiety. In addition, it will help build trust and help the child feel more safe.

5. Outline how you would communicate the patient’s status to the healthcare team and what information would be included in the documentation.

To communicate with the other members on my team about the patient’s health status I would

• – Inform them about the child’s arrival

• – Clearly state exactly what the parents have said about the child in this case it would be the

  persistent coughing , difficulty breathing, and high fever.

• – If the nursing staff or anyone else on the healthcare team has made a comment on the child

  that might be relevant. Also replay those back to the rest of the team. On the documentation it would have

• – Patient basic information ( name, dob, age)

• – The complaints / reason for visit

– Again in this case as stated above which would be the persistent coughing , difficulty breathing, and high fever.

• – If the child has any previous medical history

  • – Either the child’s past illnesses or diseases

  • – Or if the family has had anything relevant

• – The vitals that were taking for that day

  • – Oxygen

  • – Temp

  • – Bp

  • – Heart rate

  • – Respiratory

• – If the child has any pain (so on the pain scale of 1-10 but since it is a child they might do the faces scale instead)

• – The length of the symptoms and if they are taking anything for it (has it better or worsened with it) how long they have been taking it, the milligrams, and how frequent