Università degli studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia

The purpose of this thesis is that of describing the nurse's role under critical circumstances, where patient, because of certain pathologies, cannot breath autonomously and therefore need an instrumental therapy called "Mechanical ventilation": Firstly, an introduction, that describes briefly some concepts of anatomy, physiology and pathophysiology related to the above-mentioned therapy, is made to give the general reader the opportunity to comprehend the meaning of some ventilation's concepts, which is, moreover, a very complicated subject; moving then to description of a respiratory failure, ventilation's methods and subsequently the nursing treatment introduced to the patient. This latter chapter is particularly developed and illustrates all facets of the nurse's role who is applying (assisting) the ventilation, where the correct application of the therapy, the patient's monitoring and treatment, the prevention of aggravations and the ability to behave properly in critical conditions are all guaranteed. The final chapter, schematically shows a standard caring planning using the taxonomy NANDA-I,NOC and NIC.