John Gallagher, DNP, professor at Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, and Jennifer Adamski, assistant dean at the nursing school, recently published an article titled “Mechanical Ventilation: Modes, Settings and Clinical Considerations” in the AACN Advanced Critical Care journal.
In the article, Gallagher and Adamski review classifications of ventilator modes, initial ventilator settings, alarms and clinical considerations when using mechanical ventilation. The paper also explores more advanced modes potentially used for lung protection and recruitment to improve oxygenation and ventilation.
About the paper
Since its initial use during the polio epidemic in the 1950s, positive pressure mechanical ventilation has become an indispensable therapy to support critically ill patients in the intensive care unit. Over the past 70 years, ventilators have increased in technical sophistication and capability. Although these advances have increased our ability to support complex conditions, such as acute respiratory distress syndrome, the development of new modes and applications, often assigned manufacturer-specific trade names, can cause confusion among clinicians who must use them.
