What is the primary nursing intervention for preventing respiratory complications in immobile patients?

• A. Encouraging cough and deep breathing exercises every 1 to 2 hours.
• B. Providing a high-fluid diet.
• C. Administering antibiotics as needed.
• D. Encouraging free movement and ambulation.

Answer: (A)

Maintaining adequate lung expansion and airway clearance is essential when a patient cannot move much. Immobility tends to cause shallow breathing, reduced tidal volume, and pooling of secretions, which raises the risk of atelectasis and pneumonia. Encouraging cough and deep breathing exercises every 1–2 hours directly addresses these issues by promoting full diaphragmatic breaths, increasing ventilation, reopening collapsed alveoli, and helping to mobilize mucus. This frequent practice helps keep the lungs expanded during rest and sleep and improves overall oxygenation.

The other options don’t target this primary preventive goal as effectively. A high-fluid diet can help thin secretions but doesn’t actively expand the lungs or prevent alveolar collapse. Antibiotics are treatments for infection rather than prevention in immobile patients. Encouraging movement and ambulation is beneficial, but if mobility is limited, the immediate, most effective intervention to prevent respiratory complications is frequent cough and deep breathing exercises.