Home oxygen.

www.homehealthcarenurseonline.com Thank you for this important question. There are many misunderstandings about home oxygen use. Oxygen is not addictive, and the body does not build up tolerance to oxygen. Every single organ in the body depends on it, and some are very sensitive to a lack of oxygen. One of the chief benefits of supplemental oxygen is it can slow or prevent some of the complications associated with chronic hypoxemia, such as pulmonary hypertension and right-sided heart failure. Having patients wear their oxygen too much is not usually the problem—it can be much more difficult to convince patients who do not want to wear oxygen that they need it to protect their organs from the effects of hypoxemia. Getting a patient to accept home oxygen is part of the educational process. Teaching your patients that oxygen can improve survival and quality of life (Anderson et al., 2013) and exercise performance (Criner, 2013) will help them understand that oxygen provides health benefits. The availability of low cost and accurate finger oximeters can improve proper use of home oxygen by allowing patients to see their saturation numbers with and without the flow rate of their oxygen above what was ordered by their physician. Proper education, both before oxygen therapy is started at home, as well as any time during the process is imperative. The durable medical equipment company that supplies your patient’s oxygen can tell you precisely how the primary care provider ordered it to be used. They are also responsible for ensuring that the patient and caregivers are educated on safe use and storage of oxygen. If there is any concern that the patient does not understand safe use of their oxygen delivery system, notify their durable medical equipment company. —Mark M. Courtney RRT, NRP, AE-C, CTTS