For a patient on a mechanical ventilator, what is an important ongoing assessment?

• A. Listen to lung sounds often
• B. Check blood pressure every hour
• C. Administer daily multivitamins
• D. Change endotracheal tube position every hour

Answer: (B)

The important ongoing assessment is regularly monitoring the patient’s hemodynamic status, especially blood pressure. When a patient is on a ventilator, positive-pressure ventilation and critical illness can cause rapid changes in perfusion and cardiovascular status. Checking blood pressure hourly provides a timely trend to detect instability early and guide interventions such as fluids, vasoactive meds, or adjustments to ventilator settings or sedation.

Listening to lung sounds is useful for assessing secretions and ventilation, but it doesn’t provide the same continuous, quantitative view of the patient’s stability. Administering daily multivitamins isn’t part of acute ongoing monitoring, and changing the endotracheal tube position every hour is unsafe and unnecessary; tube position is assessed as needed based on clinical changes and objective checks.