Critical Care Registered Nurse (CCRN) Practice Exam 2025 – Your Complete Guide to Exam Mastery

The primary purpose of using sedation in mechanically ventilated patients is to facilitate comfort. Patients who are on mechanical ventilation may experience anxiety, discomfort, or distress due to the invasive nature of the procedure and the sensations associated with being intubated. Sedation helps alleviate these feelings, allowing patients to tolerate the mechanical ventilation more comfortably and reducing the risk of psychological trauma.

While preventing delirium is an important aspect of care and sedation may indirectly contribute to this by promoting restfulness, its primary role is to ensure the patient's comfort during invasive procedures. Sedation can also help synchronize the patient's breathing with the ventilator, but the core intent remains patient comfort.

Increasing respiratory rate or improving oxygenation are not direct purposes of sedation. These physiological parameters are managed through the settings on the ventilator and overall clinical management rather than solely through the use of sedative medications. Hence, the primary focus of sedation in this context is to provide comfort and ease for the patient.