You are working the NOC shift at a 260-bed Community Medical…
You are working the NOC shift at a 260-bed Community Medical Center. You receive a stat call to the emergency room. To assess and treat a patient described by the nurse as experiencing severe respiratory distress. As you enter the patient’s room, you observe the middle-aged adult male in severe respiratory distress. The patient is leaning forward on the bedside table, breathing rapidly with marked use of accessory muscles. Breath sounds are very decreased, with very faint wheezing superimposed over a prolonged expiratory phase. The resident doctor covering the ER arrived at the bedside and asked what you would immediately recommend doing with this patient. (SELECT ONLY ONE)