Hey there everybody welcome back to the Straight A Nursing Podcast this is Nurse Mo and today we are talking about coop d But before we get into that, I just want to say that I totally recognize that our production

schedule has gone into a little bit of a slower paced mode right now and I promise there's a very good

reason for that. We're working behind the scenes over here on a giant new project and a huge product launch that will occur

later in the summer so it's just taking up a lot of our resources. We're

still posting great content just not quite as frequently, but once this

product launch occurs, we'll be definitely back into the full swing of things.

So as I'm sure you recall, COPD stands for chronic obstructive

pulmonary disease. So what this is is essentially a chronic inflammatory lung disease

usually made up of a blend of emphysema or chronic bronchitis,

maybe a little asthma thrown in, and it's mostly as a result of smoking.

It can also be due to exposure to irritants, maybe someone who works in an environment where there's a lot of

dust particles or noxious fumes chemicals, things like that. For the most part

though, your COBT patient is likely to be a long-term smoker. So the signs

that you might see in your patient with COPD, shortness of breath is a big one. They may have a long

expiratory phase of their respiratory cycle. This could be accompanied by

something called Perst-Lip Breat breathing, which is a technique that

COPD patients learn to help empty their lungs. There's often increased mucous production. You may hear wheezing. The

patient could be confused. State that their chest feels tight, have a cough, or be lethargic to somnolent to completely

obtunded.

So in COPD, essentially you have a couple of problems.

In one, the lungs basically lose their elasticity,

so air gets trapped in the lungs.

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