Administering Oxygen: Nasal Cannula and Face Mask - Video Lesson

Hey, everyone. Welcome back to our exploration of the different procedures for administering medication. This lesson focuses on oxygen therapy, equipment used in its administration, proper procedures, and post administration care. Oxygen administration is prescribed when a patient's body is not receiving enough oxygen. In these cases, patients can develop hypoxemia or hypoxia. Hypoxemia is low levels of oxygen in the blood and can cause hypoxia, which is low oxygen in the body's tissues. In other words, if the blood is not carrying enough oxygen to the body's tissues to meet its needs, hypoxia can occur. The word hypoxia is sometimes used to describe both low oxygen levels in the blood and the tissue. Normal oxygen saturation levels are between ninety five and one hundred percent. In most patients, lower than ninety two percent is considered hypoxic. For patients with COPD, oxygen saturate