Conduct pulmonary assessments to identify abnormal respiratory patterns or breathing sounds that indicate problems.

“Conduct pulmonary assessments to identify abnormal respiratory patterns or breathing sounds that indicate problems.” is a core task performed by Critical Care Nurses. Among the occupation's 29 rated tasks, workers place it 23rd by importance (#7 most important). About 100% of workers say it is relevant to their job.

This is a single occupation-specific task statement from O*NET. The figures below describe how central the task is to the job and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the task will be automated.

Work activities this task rolls up to

O*NET groups concrete tasks into broader work activities shared across many occupations.

• Administer diagnostic tests to assess patient health. in Inspecting Equipment, Structures, or Materials

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E2. Exposure with tools — software built on top of a language model (not the model alone) could cut the time by at least half.

Exposure measures whether a model could meaningfully speed the task up — it is an estimate of overlap with model capabilities, not a measure of whether the work will be done by software. The study's intermediate score (β) for this task is 0.50. Automation potential label: T1.

Other tasks in this occupation

• Evaluate patients' vital signs or laboratory data to determine emergency intervention needs. · importance 5.0
• Monitor patients for changes in status and indications of conditions such as sepsis or shock and institute appropriate interventions. · importance 4.8
• Administer medications intravenously, by injection, orally, through gastric tubes, or by other methods. · importance 4.8
• Monitor patients' fluid intake and output to detect emerging problems, such as fluid and electrolyte imbalances. · importance 4.8
• Prioritize nursing care for assigned critically ill patients, based on assessment data or identified needs. · importance 4.7
• Compile and analyze data obtained from monitoring or diagnostic tests. · importance 4.7
• Assess patients' pain levels or sedation requirements. · importance 4.6
• Collaborate with other health care professionals to develop and revise treatment plans, based on identified needs and assessment data. · importance 4.6
• Document patients' medical histories and assessment findings. · importance 4.5
• Collect specimens for laboratory tests. · importance 4.5
• Set up and monitor medical equipment and devices such as cardiac monitors, mechanical ventilators and alarms, oxygen delivery devices, transducers, or pressure lines. · importance 4.4
• Administer blood and blood products, monitoring patients for signs and symptoms related to transfusion reactions. · importance 4.4
• Advocate for patients' and families' needs, or provide emotional support for patients and their families. · importance 4.4
• Assess family adaptation levels and coping skills to determine whether intervention is needed. · importance 4.2

See all tasks on the Critical Care Nurses page.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-task-18340,
  title  = {Conduct pulmonary assessments to identify abnormal respiratory patterns or breathing sounds that indicate problems.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/tasks/task-18340}
}