The best method for the nurse to assess for stridor is to listen when auscultating over a patients trachea. This is when a nurse uses a stethoscope to listen to sounds in the trachea. A nurse can also listen directly using her ear to listen. Stridor will present with a high pitched sound, almost musical, during the auscultating over the trachea of the patient. This will indicate that the airway is being blocked. The nurse will then inform the DR of the stridor. The patient should be immediately moved to another position which is usually the Fowler position. The nurse will then perform suctioning of the fluids that the patient is unable to do themselves.
