Question

The nurse is planning to percuss the back of an adult male client for diaphragmatic excursion. how should the nurse begin the assessment?

Answer 1

Diaphragmatic excursion is the movement that the diaphragm makes during breathing. The first thing to ask the patient is to exhale and hold it.Then the nurse percusses down their back in the intercostal spaces, starting below the scapula, until sounds change from resonant to dull (lungs are resonant, solid organs are dull).