The ED nurse is assessing a patient complaining of dyspnea. The nurse auscultates the patient's chest and hears wheezing throughout the lung fields. What might this indicate?
Correct Answer: A
Rationale: The correct answer is A: The patient has a narrowed airway. Wheezing throughout the lung fields indicates the presence of narrowed airways, often due to conditions like asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Wheezing is caused by turbulent airflow through narrowed airways, leading to a high-pitched whistling sound during expiration. This is a characteristic finding in patients with obstructive airway diseases.
Summary of other choices:
B: The patient having pneumonia would typically present with symptoms like fever, cough, and consolidation on auscultation, not wheezing.
C: The patient needing physiotherapy may have respiratory muscle weakness or secretion clearance issues but would not typically present with wheezing throughout lung fields.
D: The presence of a hemothorax (blood in the pleural space) would manifest as decreased breath sounds and signs of respiratory distress but not wheezing.