This paper is going to discuss Boyle’s Law and how it relates to respiratory care. It will define what the law is, how it works, and why it is important to us. We use this law every day without even thinking about it. So many of our everyday activities and actions are related to certain gas laws that have been built into our lives at home and at work. Without many of the gas laws we would not have the advancements that we have today. Boyle’s Law has had a very important role in our lives. It is the reason why we have the medical technology that we have today and why it keeps improving. Because of Boyle’s law, the medical profession saves lives and improves lives every day.
In the 1600’s Robert Boyle from Ireland explained the relationship between pressure and volume of a gas, which is now known as, Boyle’s Law. Boyle’s law states a volume of gas varies inversely proportional to its pressure at a constant temperature. The equation for Boyle’s law is written as P1 X V1 = P2 X V2 (Jardins 2013), which is used to calculate the settings on ventilators and other respiratory machines. For patients on ventilators this is one of the ways they can get help when they can’t breathe for themselves and need to get oxygen into the lungs. It also removes carbon dioxide from the body and helps patients breathe easier when they have to put a lot of effort into breathing. A ventilator blows the air into your airway through a breathing tube. One end of the tube is inserted into your windpipe and the other end is attached to the ventilator. The breathing tube serves as an airway by letting air and oxygen from the ventilator flow into the lungs (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, 2011). This helps the patient that is struggling t...
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... every day to help patients that have pneumonia, COPD, strokes, brain injuries or drug overdoses. Boyle’s law has helped make the advances in the medical care that we have now, and it will continue to help advance not only the medical field but in our day to day living. Without Boyle’s knowledge we would not have the medical care that we have today. This law has touched every aspect of our lives, whether it’s blowing up a balloon or helping a patient breath.
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National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. (2011, Febuary 01). Explore ventilators. Retrieved from http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/vent/
Many interventions are already in place to improve patient outcomes while on a ventilator. For example, elevating the head of the bed to 30 degrees, preventing venous thrombus via sequential compression devices or anticoagulant drugs, initiating early mobilization and practicing good hand hygiene were among the interventions listed by Fields, L.B., 2008. However, oral care was n...
Ascertaining the adequacy of gaseous exchange is the major purpose of the respiratory assessment. The components of respiratory assessment comprises of rate, rhythm, quality of breathing, degree of effort, cough, skin colour, deformities and mental status (Moore, 2007). RR is a primary indicator among other components that assists health professionals to record the baseline findings of current ventilatory functions and to identify physiological respiratory deterioration. For instance, increased RR (tachypnoea) and tidal volume indicate the body’s attempt to correct hypoxaemia and hypercapnia (Cretikos, Bellomo, Hillman, Chen, Finfer, & Flabouris, 2008). The inclusive use of a respiratory assessment on a patient could lead to numerous potential benefits. Firstly, initial findings of respiratory assessment reveals baseline data of patient’s respiratory functions. Secondly, if the patient is on respiratory medication such as salbutamol and ipratropium bromide, the respiratory assessment enables nurses to measure the effectiveness of medications and patient’s compliance towards those medications (Cretikos, Bellomo, Hillman, Chen, Finfer, & Flabouris, 2008). Thirdly, it facilitates early identification of respiratory complications and it has the potential to reduce the risk of significant clinical
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The Iron lung was one of the first medical advances made in the field of biomedical engineering (“Iron” par. 7). Philip Drinker, a professor at Harvard University, was the first person to invent an artificial respirator: the iron lung (Pendergast 119). Drinker was an American born who majored in chemical engineering (Schlager par. 2). He invented the iron lung in the year 1928 (Baughman 343). With the development of the iron lung, Philip Drinker established a way to save a patient’s life (Pendergast 119). He developed a machine that could work on anybody, no matter their body type (“Iron” par. 4). The iron lung, sometimes known as the Drinker tank, was invented to be used as an artificial respirator. This invention, however, was a means to keep patients with Poliomyelitis breathing, but it could not be used as a cure (“Poliomyelitis par. 7).
Ventilator Associated Pneumonia (VAP) is a very common hospital acquired infection, especially in pediatric intensive care units, ranking as the second most common (Foglia, Meier, & Elward, 2007). It is defined as pneumonia that develops 48 hours or more after mechanical ventilation begins. A VAP is diagnosed when new or increase infiltrate shows on chest radiograph and two or more of the following, a fever of >38.3C, leukocytosis of >12x10 9 /mL, and purulent tracheobronchial secretions (Koenig & Truwit, 2006). VAP occurs when the lower respiratory tract that is sterile is introduced microorganisms are introduced to the lower respiratory tract and parenchyma of the lung by aspiration of secretions, migration of aerodigestive tract, or by contaminated equipment or medications (Amanullah & Posner, 2013). VAP occurs in approximately 22.7% of patients who are receiving mechanical ventilation in PICUs (Tablan, Anderson, Besser, Bridges, & Hajjeh, 2004). The outcomes of VAP are not beneficial for the patient or healthcare organization. VAP adds to increase healthcare cost per episode of between $30,000 and $40,000 (Foglia et al., 2007) (Craven & Hjalmarson, 2010). This infection is also associated with increase length of stay, morbidity and high crude mortality rates of 20-50% (Foglia et al., 2007)(Craven & Hjalmarson, 2010). Currently, the PICU has implemented all of the parts of the VARI bundle except the daily discussion of readiness to extubate. The VARI bundle currently includes, head of the bed greater then or equal to 30 degrees, use oral antiseptic (chlorhexidine) each morning, mouth care every 2 hours, etc. In the PICU at children’s, the rates for VAP have decreased since the implementation of safety ro...
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The Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) was used to find peer-reviewed articles, using query terms such as: aspiration pneumonia, ventilator, and prevention. In addition, the TWUniversal search engine was utilized to find peer-reviewed articles, with the key words: aspiration pneumonia, ventilator, and enteral.
Elaborate: The cardiac cycle of the heart is divided into diastole and systole stages. Diastole refers to the period of relaxation experienced by the atria and ventricles. Systole is the contraction of the atria and ventricles. The pattern of blood flow starts in the left atrium to right atrium then into the left ventricle and right ventricle. During its course, blood flows through the mitral and tricuspid valves. Simultaneously, the right atrium is granted blood from the veins through the superior and inferior vena cava. The job of the superior vena cava is to transport de-oxygenated blood to
The heart serves as a powerful function in the human body through two main jobs. It pumps oxygen-rich blood throughout the body and “blood vessels called coronary arteries that carry oxygenated blood straight into the heart muscle” (Katzenstein and Pinã, 2). There are four chambers and valves inside the heart that “help regulate the flow of blood as it travels through the heart’s chambers and out to the lungs and body” (Katzenstein Pinã, 2). Within the heart there is the upper chamber known as the atrium (atria) and the lower chamber known as the ventricles. “The atrium receive blood from the lu...
Medical technology today has achieved remarkable feats in prolonging the lives of human beings. Respirators can support a patient's failin...
Person, A. & Mintz, M., (2006), Anatomy and Physiology of the Respiratory Tract, Disorders of the Respiratory Tract, pp. 11-17, New Jersey: Human Press Inc.
The heart is a pump with four chambers made of their own special muscle called cardiac muscle. Its interwoven muscle fibers enable the heart to contract or squeeze together automatically (Colombo 7). It’s about the same size of a fist and weighs some where around two hundred fifty to three hundred fifty grams (Marieb 432). The size of the heart depends on a person’s height and size. The heart wall is enclosed in three layers: superficial epicardium, middle epicardium, and deep epicardium. It is then enclosed in a double-walled sac called the Pericardium. The terms Systole and Diastole refer respectively and literally to the contraction and relaxation periods of heart activity (Marieb 432). While the doctor is taking a patient’s blood pressure, he listens for the contractions and relaxations of the heart. He also listens for them to make sure that they are going in a single rhythm, to make sure that there are no arrhythmias or complications. The heart muscle does not depend on the nervous system. If the nervous s...
Hinkle, Janice, and Kerry Cheever. “Management of Patients with Chronic Pulmonary Disease." Textbook of Medical-Surgical Nursing, 13th Ed. Philadelphia: Lisa McAllister, 2013. 619-630. Print.
of the air spaces and drops the air pressure in the lungs so that air