 Hi guys, so today I wanted to talk about some tips for caring for intubated patients It can be very intimidating the first time you take care of intubated patients because they've got a breathing tube coming out of their mouth They're very sick. They're on life support and you're just like Mind blown at how many take care of this person when they have all this other stuff going on So as an ICU nurse obviously I've gotten very comfortable and confident in taking care of these types of patients I wanted to offer some tips on things that you should or shouldn't do my number one tip is Patient safety So basically all the care that you're doing for this patient is going to revolve around Making sure they don't pull their breathing tube out or making sure that their breathing tube doesn't come out So anytime you're turning or rolling the patient You really need to make sure that someone always has an eye on that Et tube that it's secured that you have extra slack in your ventilator tubing so that way when you turn them it Has room to pull with them versus if it was kind of stuck on something and you turn them And then you potentially pull their ET tube out or partially pull it out So very important that you're always paying attention to that ET tube whenever you're doing any sort of care to an intubated patient Also, every hospital is going to be different When it comes to restraint usage mid usage so check with your hospital policy on that But if you have a patient who is maybe not adequately sedated or even if they are sedated is still having has enough strength or Willpower I don't know what you want to say to potentially pull their ET tube out Then it's important to make sure that you're following your hospital policies as far as maybe They need soft restraints. Maybe they need mitts on maybe you need up their sedation That's all gonna depend on the orders that you have So make sure you're following your orders in your hospital policy But I can say where I work is we use soft restraints quite a bit not on every intubated patient But when someone even if someone sedated if they're not heavily heavily sedated They could still wake up and grab their ET tube and not necessarily Intentionally, but it's a reflex you have something going down your throat Of course, you don't want to pair and you're gonna try and reach and get it out so making sure your patient is sedated and Comfortable and maybe they're receiving pain medication. So that way They are comfortable and you have a less less of a chance of them pulling their ET tube out Some other really important tips This has to do with the VAP bundle. So ventilator associated pneumonia There's many things that we do as nurses to prevent patients on a ventilator from getting pneumonia and so Making sure you do your oral care per the VAP bundle or hospital policy, whatever Wherever you work, they'll have a policy on it or I work. It's every two to four hours We do oral care on vented patients Making sure their head of the bed is at least 30 degrees There's other things that have to do the VAP bundle as well But those are some of the things that we do at the bedside Also another important thing that I'm not not a lot of people think about But make sure you follow your hospital policy on this as well, but changing your suction tubing and canisters I can't tell you how many times you walk into a room and this suction to suction tubing on this vented patient Who's been vented for a week hasn't changed and bacteria and nasty stuff grow on there And then you're using or doing oral care or going down your ET tube and suctioning with that same suction canister or tubing That's kind of gross. So following your policy as far as how often you change it And labeling it so that way you know That it's been changed. The next thing is just to treat these vented patients like human beings make sure you're talking with them and Explaining things to them. I like to try and even if I know they're sedated I will explain to them like okay, I'm gonna lift your right arm now I'm gonna put a pillow under there or okay I'm gonna we're gonna be turning you a little bit to your left or you're gonna feels a cold wipe because I'm cleaning your back Side whatever it is explaining what you're doing treating them like they're human even if you know that they know How can anyone really know but even if you know they're not gonna remember it or they probably don't hear you or they probably don't Understand you or maybe they're brain dead. So, you know that they just They're brain dead. I Personally, maybe it's just me, but I like to talk to my patients about what I'm doing I'm doing oral care if we're moving their ET tube or for suctioning explaining to them everything that's going on You can only imagine if you're got a breathing tube down your throat. You're strapped down to the bed. It can be very intimidating. So just being that Comforting voice and explaining things as he goes my next tip. So those are my tips for caring for intubated patients At the end of the day, they're patients just like anyone else They just have a breathing tube in it's just another piece of equipment Just like if a patient has a wound back on or they're hooked up to an IV or they have a central line or they have I don't know whatever they have on them It's just another piece of equipment very important piece and something you have to be very careful of but Just making sure that you are treating them with respect and dignity and keeping them safe I hope you guys enjoyed this video If you did get a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel and I'll see you guys next time