Asthma
This class of inhaled medication is the mainstay controller therapy for persistent asthma and is essential to reduce the risk of severe exacerbations and death.
What are inhaled corticosteroids (ICS)?
This modifiable risk factor is the single most important cause of COPD, making cessation counseling a top nursing priority
What is cigarette smoking (tobacco exposure)?
Beyond cough, fever, and crackles, this imaging study showing a new infiltrate is required to confirm the diagnosis of community-acquired pneumonia.
What is a chest X-ray (chest radiograph)?
These "three P's" are the well-recognized classic symptoms of hyperglycemia in diabetes.
What are polyuria, polydipsia, and polyphagia?
In developed countries, these two conditions are the most common causes of CKD.
What are diabetes and hypertension?
Albuterol belongs to this class of "reliever" medication that acutely relieves bronchospasm.
What is a short-acting beta2-agonist (SABA)?
The most effective maintenance treatments for COPD are these two classes of long-acting inhaled bronchodilators, often combined in one inhaler.
What are LABA (long-acting beta2-agonist) and LAMA (long-acting muscarinic antagonist)?
To improve ventilation–perfusion matching and promote secretion clearance, the nurse keeps the head of bed elevated, encourages this position change, and gets the patient out of bed early rather than leaving them supine
What is early mobilization (and sitting upright)?
This blood test, reflecting average glucose over roughly 3 months, is used to monitor long-term glycemic control
What is hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c)?
CKD is defined as a GFR below this value, or kidney damage markers, persisting for more than 3 months.
What is 60 mL/min/1.73 m²?
The classic triad of symptoms in asthma includes wheezing, chest tightness, and these two additional respiratory complaints.
What are dyspnea (shortness of breath) and cough?
COPD is diagnosed by a lack of reversibility of obstruction, defined by a post-bronchodilator FEV1/FVC ratio below this value.
What is less than 70% (0.70)?
Nurses monitor for this life-threatening complication of pneumonia—suspected when confusion, rising respiratory rate, hypotension, or a climbing lactate appear—so that rapid escalation can occur.
What is sepsis (severe CAP with organ dysfunction)?
Type 2 diabetes results from defects in insulin secretion combined with this condition, in which cells fail to respond normally to insulin.
What is insulin resistance?
Nurses must monitor CKD patients for this dangerous electrolyte abnormality, along with metabolic acidosis, hyperphosphatemia, and anemia.
What is hyperkalemia?
Budesonide-formoterol can serve as both controller and reliever because formoterol, unlike salmeterol, is a long-acting beta2-agonist with this property—a fast onset of action.
What is a rapid onset of action?
This structured, multidisciplinary program of supervised exercise training, education, and self-management reduces dyspnea and hospital readmissions and is recommended for symptomatic COPD patients, typically over 6 to 8 weeks
What is pulmonary rehabilitation?
This hygiene intervention, when neglected, raises the odds of ventilator-associated pneumonia by 18–24%, making it a core but often-skipped nursing measure.
What is oral care (oral hygiene)?
Long-standing diabetes damages small vessels, causing this triad of microvascular complications affecting the eyes, kidneys, and nerves.
What are retinopathy, nephropathy, and neuropathy?
As kidneys fail to excrete this electrolyte, nurses teach a restricted-intake diet and watch the ECG for peaked T waves; potassium binders like sodium zirconium cyclosilicate may be needed
What is potassium (hyperkalemia)?
During an acute asthma attack, this ominous shift from loud wheezing to a quiet chest, along with a rising CO2 and drowsiness, signals impending respiratory failure.
What is a "silent chest"?
Long-standing hypoxemia in COPD can raise pulmonary artery pressures and produce this right-sided heart failure, classically seen with peripheral edema and jugular venous distention.
What is cor pulmonale?
To reduce aspiration risk—especially in older adults and those with swallowing difficulty—nurses maintain this simple positioning intervention during feeding and continuous enteral nutrition.
What is elevating the head of the bed (semi-Fowler's position)?
This deep, rapid, sighing breathing pattern is the body's attempt to blow off CO₂ and compensate for the anion-gap metabolic acidosis of diabetic ketoacidosis.
What are Kussmaul respirations?
Failing kidneys produce too little of this hormone, causing the anemia of CKD that is treated with iron and erythropoiesis-stimulating agents
What is erythropoietin?