One RN's perspective on ventilator requests/supply Aside from the fact that all nurses are not trained to care for a ventilator dependent patient, and that's a whole other issue in itself, one vent in a hospital setting requires a separate oxygen, compressed air and electric connection. Wall suction is also mandatory to address secretions. That is four lines of separate function normally found in most hospital rooms. My point is, for any Mayor, Governor or public official to decry that they need thousands of ventilators is ridiculous if the health care givers or facilities do not have access to these four components of ventilator function for each vent for each patient.  This would normally be dictated by the number of hospital rooms equipped with these functions and the adequacy of the trained staff.