Nursing care of the respiratory system

The topic of this bachelor thesis is nursing care related to the respiratory system and its diseases. Acute or chronic forms of disease may occur in any hospital units and it is important to know basic rules, treatments and best practices of taking care of the respiratory system. The theoretical part is focused on breath monitoring, application of inhalation preparations, Oxygenotherapy and maintain patency of respiratory system. It also describes hospital units involved in practical research. Two objectives have been set for this thesis. First, how often are nurses at departments of Internal medicine, Surgery and Pneumology in touch with respiratory system diseases, which diseases cause most cases of hospitalization, how these nurses take care of respiratory system and their best practices related to Oxygenotherapy, measuring oxygen saturation and inhalation. Second, what kind of information about respiratory system diseases is known to hospitalized patients and how they care about themselves. Empirical part of this thesis was performed in qualitative form, using semi-structured interview. The questions were divided into six categories: (1) frequency of appearance of respiratory disease; (2) breath monitoring; (3) central oxygen supply system; (4) inhalation; (5) airway suction; (6) education. Research group contains nine nurses with different qualification levels from three distinct hospital units and nine patients with different diagnosis of respiratory disease. The research reveals that there are almost no cases of respiratory disease at department of Surgery. On other hand, nurses at department of Pneumology are in daily touch with respiratory diseases and hospitalized patients belong to the Old age category (65+). Nurses also hardly even use Oxymeter, only in case of Acute deterioration, but they have good enough skills and knowledge of treatment methods and are fully capable to take care of patients' respiratory system