[Answered]: You are a respiratory therapist working the day…

You are a respiratory therapist working the day shift in the Medical/Surgical wing at a 200-bed community hospital. You have been assigned to work with a 22-year old male who is being admitted from the ED. The patient is 6 feet, 3 inches tall and weighs 76kg (167 lbs.). This is his second admission in the past 3 years for a spontaneous pneumothorax. The patient arrives from the ED and is transferred to his bed. He is wearing a nasal cannula running at 4 LPM and has a chest tube in place in the right anterior chest. The patient is complaining of some difficulty breathing and his SpO2 is reading 87%. The physician assistant assigned to the patient arrives and asks for your initial recommendation.