Answer: 3 The Nurse Practice Act states that nurses diagnose and treat human responses to actual or potential health problems. Administration of oxygen in an emergency situation is within the scope of nursing practice. Because the client's clinical manifestations reflected an immediate need for oxygen postponement of treatment could have resulted in further deterioration of the client's condition.
A client with coronary artery disease has a sudden episode of cyanosis and a change in respirations. The nurse starts oxygen administration immediately. Legally should the nurse have administered the oxygen?1 The oxygen had not been prescribed and therefore should not have been administered.2 Th...