title: Assessing respiratory distress when the patient cannot report dyspnea.
abstract: Ensuring patient comfort begins with a comprehensive assessment for symptom distress. The dying patient poses unique challenges for assessment because of the high prevalence of declining and impaired cognition that typifies this population. The focus of this paper is on the practical clinical question: How can we recognize respiratory distress when the patient cannot provide a report about dyspnea?
authors.affiliation: Center for Health Research, College of Nursing, Wayne State University, 5557 Cass Avenue, Detroit, MI 48202, USA.
authors.forename: Margaret L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Campbell
mesh_terms: D001526:Behavioral Symptoms / Q000503:physiopathology; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D003221:Confusion / Q000453:epidemiology; D004417:Dyspnea / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D005149:Facial Expression; D005239:Fear; D006801:Humans; D009633:Nonverbal Communication; D010166:Palliative Care; D015995:Prevalence; D013727:Terminal Care; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology