Nursing a canine patient with a pneumothorax — a patient care report

Abstract

This article will describe and evaluate the nursing care provided for a canine patient that had a chest drain in place due to a tension pneumothorax. It is evident that nursing a patient with a chest drain involves implementing and carrying out a number of nursing interventions to ensure a high standard of nursing care is maintained and to reduce the risk of any complications. The relevant nursing interventions included: pain management, management of the chest drain, preventing patient interference and observation of the patient for potential complications associated with the chest drain. Recommendations for future practice have been suggested and based on available literature, these include: implementation of a pain scoring assessment and changing the patient's thoracic bandage twice daily to allow earlier recognition of any signs of infection.