Hey there, friend. I'm Christina Rafano from nursingschoolofsuccess.com. And in this video we are going to talk about one of the types of shock you need to know about
in nursing school, and that is distributive shock.
Now distributive shock is one of the harder types of shock to understand, so we are going
to break it all down for you super simple, so you can actually remember it, learn it, and understand it,
so you can go ace your nursing school exams.
And of course, I have a free cheat sheet all about shock for you to download.
So make sure to hang out until the end of the video and I'll let you know now where
you can snag that.
And if you need more help with the cardiac system or shock, be sure to check out our
other videos to help you out with that.
And don't forget to subscribe and hit the bell so you never miss
a video.
Alrighty, so before we dive into distributive shock specifically, we need to talk about
what shock actually is.
So all shock really is, is a lack of blood flow that can lead to organ failure and death.
So when you think of shock, you should be thinking a lack of blood flow.
And this means a lack of blood flow to the heart, brain, kidneys, liver, tissues, and
all other organs and the rest of the body.
So shock simply is a lack of blood flow, and this lack of blood flow makes all of the organs
very unhappy because they are not getting the blood flow that they need to keep functioning.
Okay, so now that we understand what shock is as a whole, let's talk about distributive
shock, which is just one of the 4 types of shock.
Distributive shock can be tricky to identify sometimes, so I'm going to break it down and
make it super easy for you to remember.
So there is ONE word that you should ALWAYS associate with distributive shock, and that
one word is: vasodilation.
So distributive shock simply means vasodilation, meaning that the blood vessels are dilating.
So let's break this down: distributive shock happens when there is technically enough blood
in the blood vessels, but that blood just can't DISTRIBUTE (see what I did there?) it
can't DISTRIBUTE to the organs.
And the number one problem is vasodilation, so the blood vessels are DILATING.
And when the blood vessels dilate, the blood can't move through as fast and it's much more
difficult for your heart to pump that blood, because there's so much space and not enough
pressure to help the blood flow through the vessels.
Let's put a visual to this: So I don't know about you, but when I wash my hands I tend
to turn the water faucet wayyy up, because if you just turn it on a little it just kind
of trickles out slowly, and who has time for that, right?!
So I crank it up.
So when there's less water relative to the size of the pipes, it takes a longer time
to get the water out.
And that's exactly what's happening here with distributive shock, even though there's the
same amount of blood in the body as there was before, the blood vessels are larger,
they are dilated, so it takes longer for that blood to get to where it needs to go: your
ORGANS!
So distributive shock is caused by vasodilation, when your blood vessels dilate, the blood
just can't get to the organs, and the organs may start to fail.
The [ Slide 5 ] number one cause of distributive shock is sepsis, because sepsis causes a lot
of vasodilation.
If you want a refresher on sepsis, be sure to check out that video, I'll put the link
below this video in the description.
So, when you think of distributive shock, think vasodilation.
And that is your crash course on distributive shock.
Distributive shock just means that there is so much vasodilation in the body that the
blood can't get to where it needs to go, and the organs become very unhappy because they
aren't getting the blood they need, and they start to fail.
So that is distributive shock.
And like I promised, I have a free cheat sheet for you to download, I'll put a link to that
in the description below this video.
If you liked this video, hit the like button below, share it with your friends, and of
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Thanks for being here friend!
Now go become the nurse that God created ONLY YOU to be.
I'll catch you next time on the nursing school show.