Adventitious breath sounds

Each adventitious breath sound names the process producing it — crackles are fluid in the airways or collapsed alveoli reopening, wheezes are air forced through narrowed lower airways, stridor is a narrowed upper airway heard loudest over the neck, a pleural friction rub is inflamed pleura moving against itself, and diminished or absent sounds mean air is not reaching that part of the lung — so the nurse who names the sound correctly, records where it is heard and when in the breath, and re-listens after each intervention points the team at the right process, while a chest that was noisy and has gone silent without the patient improving is air no longer moving, not recovery.