Learner Outcomes

The goal of this program is to provide nurses with information about respiratory assessment. The program reviews respiratory structure and function, describes how to perform a respiratory assessment, and discusses diseases associated with abnormal assessment findings and how to adapt the assessment for young children.

Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:

• Recognize the principal structures of the respiratory system.
• Describe the function of the respiratory system.
• State 6 significant respiratory symptoms.
• Identify 4 techniques used in a respiratory assessment.
• Describe normal assessment findings for chest inspection.
• Recognize disturbances in breathing rate and rhythm.
• Describe normal assessment findings for chest palpation.
• Describe normal assessment findings for chest percussion.
• Differentiate among the following sounds heard and felt on percussion: resonant sounds; flat sounds; dull sounds; hyperresonant sounds; and tympanic sounds.
• Describe normal assessment findings for chest auscultation.
• Describe the characteristics and implications of the following abnormal breath sounds: crackles or rales; wheezes, rhonchi, stridor.
• Describe the implications of the following transmitted voice sounds: whispered pectoriloquy, bronchophony, egophony.
• Describe expected assessment findings for the following respiratory diseases: atelectasis, pneumonia, bronchitis, emphysema, pleural effusion, pneumothorax.
• Recognize techniques that are helpful in doing a respiratory assessment on a child.

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