A home health nurse is visiting a home care client with advanced lung cancer. Upon assessing the client, the nurse discovers wheezing, bradycardia, and a respiratory rate of 10 breaths/minute.
As the respiratory center in the brain becomes depressed, hypoxia occurs, producing wheezing, bradycardia, and a decreased respiratory rate. Delirium is a state of mental confusion characterized by disorientation to time and place. Hyperventilation (respiratory rate greater than that metabolically necessary for gas exchange) is marked by an increased respiratory rate or tidal volume, or both. Semiconsciousness is a state of impaired consciousness characterized by limited motor and verbal responses and decreased orientation.