Stop Guessing And Start Nailing ABG Questions w/ Nurse Mike
ABGs have a way of making smart nursing students freeze, not because they’re impossible, but because they’re often taught like a memorization game. We’re flipping that. Once you see arterial blood gases as relationships between pH, PaCO2, and HCO3, the confusion drops fast and the questions start to feel predictable. We walk through the exact ranges you need for nursing school and the NCLEX, then lock in the rule that keeps everything straight: CO2 is respiratory and bicarbonate (HCO3) is metabolic. From there, we connect the numbers to real test-day scenarios, like why COPD, opioids, and respiratory depression tend to show up as respiratory acidosis, and why anxiety, pain, and panic can push patients toward respiratory alkalosis. On the metabolic side, we hit the high-yield causes you’ll see again and again, including DKA, kidney failure, diarrhea, vomiting, G-tube suctioning, and diuretics. Then we give you our four-step ABG method: start with pH, check PaCO2, check HCO3, and match the pH to identify the primary disorder without guessing. We also tackle compensation, the concept that makes people spiral, with two simple anchors: lungs compensate for metabolic problems, kidneys compensate for respiratory problems, and compensation never overcorrects the pH. Finally, we tie ABGs back to what the Next Gen NCLEX really wants, choosing the right priority nursing action instead of just naming a lab result. If this helped you, subscribe, share it with a classmate, and leave a review so more nursing students can find the ABG framework that actually sticks. To submit your stories & comments, visit: https://simplenursing.com/podcast/
