Anesthesia Machine Ventilators - Essay Example

"Anesthesia Machine Ventilators" is a perfect example of a paper on the respiratory system. Healthcare is one field that has fostered many technological advancements over the past decades. Health workers have always played a significant role in our health concerns. Besides, they are also required to be sentinels of any new outbreaks. So many deaths have been experienced from outbreaks of diseases. This challenge has forced most health facilities to advance in their technologies to curb such crises.

Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNA) hold patients’ lives in their hands every day. It is beyond doubt to say that CRNAs play a significant role in the health field. These nurses assess patients daily before surgeries, administer anesthesia, and also monitor vitals during operations. There has been a steady demand for quality, cost-effective technologies in anesthesia workstations. Anesthesia machine ventilators are one great technology that has revolutionized the anesthetic field.

Anesthesia machine ventilators have evolved with the vast technological advancement from simple ventilators to sophisticated digitized micro-processing ventilators. These innovations have borne rapid progress in ventilator capabilities. Today, there are various types of ventilator mode options designed to suit each anesthetized patient. With the advancement in anesthesia workstations, many successful surgeries and better treatment options have been achieved with minimal accidents. There are various anesthesia machines available in the market today.

Medical gas administration is, at most times, a crucial factor that needs accuracy. Oxygen is undoubtedly a widely used gas not only in anesthetic procedures but also in life-support. However, deficiencies in breathing circuits have been a significant cause of death and brain damage to many patients. Anesthesia machine ventilators have become one of the convenient gas administration technologies. These ventilators have been designed safely and conveniently to deliver the gaseous substance to patients by factoring in conditions such as climate and power supply backup.

Similarly, they have also been designed to provide varying ventilatory requirements depending on the length of surgery, patient's physical status, and the treatment type.CRNAs play a crucial role in monitoring the patient’s respiration and assisting patients unable to maintain their breathing. These ideally are not an easy task. Therefore, the anesthetic ventilators came in handy in relieving patients with respiratory distress and normalizing gas levels to anesthetized patients. Modern anesthesia machine ventilators consist of two ventilation modes: volume-controlled and pressure-controlled modes (Dosch).

These modes have increased the accuracy of ventilators. Volume-controlled modes aim to achieve the preset volume whereas the pressure-controlled modes aim at achieving preset pressure level. The ventilation mode and respiratory rates are always selected according to a patient’s requirements. These modes also measure the patient's inspiration and monitor any possible leaks. The ventilators, however, vary in many concepts. Therefore, it is a vital requirement for all CRNAs to stay updated with the current anesthetic ventilation models and modes.

The use of anesthetic ventilators goes beyond surgery requirements only. Corona Virus is one pandemic that has adamantly lead to a shortage of many health facilities worldwide (Chen et al.). The rapid spread of COVID-19 has posed a great threat to human health. Nurses have been among the frontline health workers who have been faced with the task of controlling this infectious disease. Many strategic recommendations and implementations have been analyzed to help most people acquire efficient healthcare during this pandemic.

Most COVID-19 infected patients are, however, faced with respiratory failures and require ventilators. However, with the rise of patient numbers, there has been a shortage of ventilators worldwide. Many discussions and considerations have been made on utilizing anesthetic ventilators in COVID-19 related patients. The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) and the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation (APSF) have released guidance for the use of anesthesia machines in critically ill patients (Dosch).

The spread of the pandemic has also overwhelmed the nurses assigned. CRNA's are believed to be qualified and can function in various areas of the hospital, and they will, therefore, play an essential role in providing care to COVID-19 patients (Biddle).These broad adaptive features of anesthetic ventilators have attracted many researchers and manufacturers to develop innovative and highly effective anesthetic ventilators. Researchers have been exploring the use of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to help advance anesthetic ventilators to fit more needs.

This has ideally nurtured new integrated systems that have been created to improve the modes of these ventilators. Similarly, anesthetic ventilators have been equipped with Anesthesia information management systems. (AIMS) that record patients' data and transmit electronic health records.Anesthetic ventilators require high accuracy because any equipment problems result can result in mortality. Although there have been many technological advancements in anesthetic ventilators, there are still some challenges to it.

First, modern anesthetic ventilators are created sophistically and come with many changes. The usability of many modern anesthetic ventilators differs significantly. This has posed a great challenge to most CRNAs to understand the differences. There have been human-related problems recorded due to improper operation of anesthetic ventilators by some CRNAs. These incidence initiated yearly meetings of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA) Practice Committee, in collaboration with AANA Professional Practice staff to review and evaluate the Professional Practice Manual for the CRNA ( Poole and Greenier)Moreover, there have been cases of Postoperative pulmonary complications (PPCs) (Young et al.). Most modern anesthetic ventilators are designed to deliver a set number of breaths per minute with assistance from the pressure and volume modes.

This is always efficient for fully oxygen-dependent patients. However, some patients whose cases are not severe require a model that support also synchronized ventilation that can allow spontaneous breaths per minute as the condition progresses. This will ideally reduce PPC cases. Therefore, it is beyond doubt to say that anesthetic ventilators are one of the significant technological advancements in the health sector.