Specialty Hub
Mechanical Ventilation
From first settings to liberation — modes, NIV, weaning, alarm troubleshooting, and lung-protective strategy, backed by the calculators and board-style practice that make it stick.
Guides
Teaching pages for every stage of ventilator management.
Ventilator Modes Explained
How the main ventilator modes work — AC/VC, AC/PC, SIMV, PSV, PRVC, APRV, and CPAP — built on the trigger, limit, and cycle framework, with watch-outs.
Initial Ventilator Settings
Set mode, tidal volume, rate, FiO₂, and PEEP for adult mechanical ventilation — starting from predicted body weight, with first-ABG titration logic.
Noninvasive Ventilation Basics
When to use CPAP vs bilevel NIV, starting pressures, contraindications, and the 1–2 hour reassessment that decides success or intubation.
Weaning & Spontaneous Breathing Trials
Run a spontaneous breathing trial — the daily readiness screen, SBT mechanics and failure criteria, RSBI, and why passing the SBT isn't extubation.
Ventilator Waveforms & Graphics
Read ventilator scalars and loops at the bedside — pressure, flow, and volume over time plus the P-V and F-V loops — and recognize the patterns they show: peak-vs-plateau (resistance vs compliance), auto-PEEP, leaks, and flow starvation.
Interactive Practice
Practice Tools
The ventilator math, a scalar-graphics trainer, a capnography reader, and the ABG-to-setting-change drill.
Clinical References
Alarm troubleshooting, parameters, and NIV settings at a glance.
Ventilator Alarm Troubleshooting
A bedside matrix for common ventilator alarms — high and low pressure, high and low rate, and high minute ventilation — with likely causes, first actions, and the DOPE approach to acute deterioration.
Normal Ventilator Parameters & Weaning Criteria
Target ranges for monitored ventilator parameters — plateau pressure, driving pressure, compliance, resistance, auto-PEEP, and VD/VT — plus the screening thresholds used to assess weaning readiness, including RSBI, MIP, and vital capacity.
NIV Initial Settings
Quick-start settings for noninvasive ventilation — initial bilevel IPAP/EPAP and CPAP pressures, FiO₂ targets, a titration guide, and the monitoring and failure signs that should prompt escalation.
Quick Charts
Modes and NIV settings side by side.
Ventilator Modes Comparison Chart
Side-by-side comparison of the common ventilator modes — AC/VC, AC/PC, SIMV, PSV, PRVC, APRV, and CPAP — showing what you set, what varies, whether minute ventilation is guaranteed, and what to watch for.
NIV Settings Chart
Starting noninvasive ventilation settings for the scenarios RTs see most — COPD with respiratory acidosis, cardiogenic pulmonary edema, obesity hypoventilation, post-extubation prevention, and immunocompromised respiratory failure — with titration targets and reassessment goals.
Suggested Learning Path
From initiation to liberation, in order.
Related Specialties
Ventilator management connects directly to these areas.