he article chosen for this week’s

Table of Contents

he article chosen for this week’s clinical reflection is similar to a case study; however, this case study provides evidence-based information regarding tension pneumothorax in a patient with a co-occurring diagnosis of COPD. Throughout the article, the authors present the patient’s situation and then proceed to discuss the relevant nursing care, pathophysiology, and other pertinent information. The patient in this scenario has a history of COPD caused by smoking, hypertension, and type 2 respiratory failure; the patient has been abstinent from smoking for about ten years, and his most recent hospital admission is due to an exacerbation of his COPD and a recurrence of tension pneumothorax (Loftus & Bowden, 2016). The authors define tension pneumothorax as, “an accumulation of air in the intrapleural space, via a one-way leak in the visceral pleura, which is considered a medical emergency, and if left untreated it can cause cardiac arrest” (Loftus & Bowden, 2016, p. 1060). The patient had an intrapleural drain placed due to the previous episode of tension pneumothorax (Loftus & Bowden, 2016). According to the authors, through the assessment process, it was discovered that the drain was blocked which was most likely contributing to the recurring episode of tension pneumothorax (Loftus & Bowden, 2016). The entire article goes step-by-step in order to lay out the entire scenario and guide the reader through the nursing process in order to serve as a guide for the overall nursing care of this situation. This EBP article is very valuable for nurses and nursing students due to the amount of information provided and the case study nature of the article in an attempt to walk the reader through the nursing process in order to figure out what is going on with the patient along with how to further provide nursing care. The authors provided a few tables within the article that encompassed information such as ABG’s, drain care, and patient vital signs. These tables are very valuable for nurses and nursing students to have and potentially utilize while in the clinical setting.