The nurse is caring for a client with emphysema. When the nurse enters the client's room, the spouse asks for the oxygen to be increased, because the client is having trouble breathing. The nurse's best intervention is to:

Question

1. Call the physician for an order to increase the oxygen delivered.
2. Increase the oxygen and monitor oxygen saturation.
3. Explain that increased oxygen will decrease respirations and make him more SOB.
4. Tell the spouse that increasing oxygen is not possible.

Answer 1

3
Rationale: While those with normal respiratory systems are driven to breathe more or faster when carbon dioxide levels rise, clients with emphysema breathe because their oxygen level declines. If PaO2 increases in these clients, they lose their drive to breathe, so increased oxygen delivery is not the best response for this client. Simply telling the wife it isn't possible to turn up the oxygen doesn't provide rationale, and the spouse might turn up the oxygen independently when the nurse leaves the room.