Respiratory Nursing
Respiratory nursing is the area of medical-surgical nursing concerned with the assessment, monitoring, and continuing care of adults living with disorders of the airways, lung parenchyma, and pulmonary circulation, together with the support technologies — supplemental oxygen and assisted ventilation — used to maintain gas exchange. It spans long-term conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma as well as the acute deterioration of breathing that brings patients to hospital.
Definition
Respiratory nursing is the branch of medical-surgical nursing focused on caring for patients with diseases of the respiratory system and on the nursing role in oxygen delivery and ventilatory support, including respiratory assessment, symptom monitoring, patient education, and coordination of multidisciplinary management.
Scope
This area orients readers to the topics grouped beneath it: obstructive airway disease (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma and reactive airway disease), pulmonary vascular and interstitial disease (pulmonary hypertension and interstitial lung disease), and the oxygen-therapy and mechanical-ventilation modalities used to support failing respiration. It treats these as reference and educational subjects within nursing, not as a manual for prescribing or titrating treatment.
Sub-topics
Core questions
- Which respiratory conditions and support modalities define the scope of respiratory nursing?
- How is respiratory status assessed and monitored across chronic and acute presentations?
- How do clinical guidelines frame the nursing contribution to managing obstructive, vascular, and interstitial lung disease?
- What distinguishes long-term disease management from the support of acute respiratory failure?
Key concepts
- Respiratory assessment and monitoring
- Obstructive airway disease
- Pulmonary vascular and interstitial disease
- Gas exchange and oxygenation
- Supplemental oxygen therapy
- Mechanical and noninvasive ventilation
- Exacerbation and self-management education
- Multidisciplinary care coordination
Clinical relevance
Respiratory conditions are among the most common reasons adults seek medical-surgical nursing care, and the area frames how nurses recognise deterioration in breathing, monitor oxygenation, and support patients across the chronic-to-acute spectrum. The entry describes the field and its guideline context for orientation and education; it is not a source of dosing or individualised treatment instructions.
Epidemiology
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma are leading chronic respiratory diseases worldwide and major contributors to outpatient visits, hospital admissions, and long-term symptom burden, as documented in the GOLD and GINA strategy reports; pulmonary hypertension and interstitial lung disease are less common but carry high morbidity, and acute respiratory failure requiring oxygen or ventilatory support is a frequent driver of inpatient and critical-care nursing workload.
Evidence & guidelines
International strategy documents and society guidelines structure the field: the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) report for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (Agustí et al., 2023), the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) strategy for asthma (Reddel et al., 2021), and the British Thoracic Society guideline for oxygen use in adults (O'Driscoll et al., 2017), which frames oxygen as a treatment to be targeted rather than given indiscriminately.
Related topics
Seminal works
- agusti-2023-gold
- reddel-2021-gina
- odriscoll-2017-bts-oxygen
Frequently asked questions
- What does respiratory nursing cover?
- It covers the nursing assessment and continuing care of adults with airway, parenchymal, and pulmonary vascular disease, along with the oxygen-therapy and ventilation modalities used to support breathing.
- Is this area a treatment protocol?
- No. It is a reference and educational overview of the field and its guideline context; it does not provide dosing, titration, or individualised clinical instructions.