How much BP practice did you get in the program?

Nursing Students CNA/MA

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Today was my 5th day of the CNA program. We are starting to work in the lab a lot more now. Last Thursday (we don't have class on Fridays) we did the book work and discussed how to take bp's. This morning our instructor brought out an "automated" arm with a digital sphygmomanometer that had a speaker on it so that we could hear how a bp sounds. Then she paired us up into groups of three with a double stethoscope to practice bp's. Two listened, one did the actually bp, and the other was the "patient". Our group had a hard time getting any bp sounds out of our first "patient". The "patient" and myself never got to try taking a bp ourselves before our time was up. We asked our instructor if we would have a chance to practice again and she indicated not until we go to the hospital for clinicals and practice on real patients (Oct. 6th is our first day of clinical).:eek:

After class the woman I sit next to asked our instructor if we could have a chance for more practice. She said that we are welcome to come to school 30 minutes early to practice whatever we want to in the lab. That is great...but we can't practice unless other students are willing to come in early, too. Hopefully the woman and I can practice on each other tomorrow morning! I haven't even had a chance to try taking a bp yet!!

Over the weekend I borrowed my in-law's portable digital sphygmomanometer. I put it on my husband, started it and listend to his brachial pulse with my stethoscope, just to get a feel for the sounds. It didn't work to well because the air pump motor sounded really loud. I could hear the diastalic pretty well, but I couldn't hear the systalic.

I'm nervous about this! We have to have three accurate bp readings to pass. Our instructor said that our training of manual bp's in the program will probably be the last time we ever do manual bp's because almost all facilities use digital sphygmomanometers now.

I'm tempted to go buy a manual sphygmomanometer for myself so that I can practice at home...but I don't want to spend $35 on something I may not ever use again after class! :banghead:

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Specializes in Telemetry.

We practiced blood pressures on each other a lot. We also had our clinicals in LTC and did manual BPs all the time on patients. I love having my own BP kit and use it quite often. In acute care, it is very important to be able to take a manual BP and feel confident at it. The automatic ones are not always accurate and can sometimes need to be double checked. It would not be a waste of money to invest in your own. Plus, you'll always have plenty of people around to practice on with friends and family asking "can you check my blood pressure.? :chuckle

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Specializes in LTC.

I got about an hours worth of practice. It's not a skill my state tests.

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Specializes in 2 years as CNA.

I didn't get much practice either and to tell you the truth if I had to take a manual BP now I would be in trouble!! I am sure deep down I remember how to do it but working at the hospitals we also use the automatic/digital sphygmomanometers so I never have a chance to use the skill.

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Specializes in CNA.

We got virtually no practice on any of the skills. Our instructor admonished us to practice at home ---- she considered it homework and our responsibility. A number of people got together and practiced at someone's house.

As far as taking manual BP, our hospital always had isolation rooms and post-op needs (post-op patients were monitored for 2 hours every 15 minutes) and often did not have equipment to leave in the room to do the automatic BP's. So, we took manual BP's a great deal. I don't know if that is 'standard' everywhere, but we would have needed dozens of extra automatic sphyg's for all the floors to cover all the isolations/post-op and no one was going to purchase that much equipment. I don't think a day went by without taking at least one manual BP.

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I got none what so ever. I got my CNA in ohio in '94 and at that time it wasn't a skill that they tested. VS consited of PTR. pulse, temp, resp. that was it. No BP. it wasn't until i moved to OK that I learned how to do a BP. Some states are different.

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Thanks for the replies everyone! Well, I was worried over nothing! We got to practice bp's for 15 minutes today. We were in groups of two and each duo had a turn working with our instructor on a double stethoscope. I got it on my very first try and was accurate with each one I did. The instructor signed me off for one of my three required accurate bp readings. I'm so relieved! (She said that she wants to sign off our three seperate readings on three different days.)

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I'm glad you got to work more in class today. For me, the double scope was about impossible to hear with. So I had to really work at that one and I'm SO glad I didn't draw that skill in the cert test!! the normal one seemed so much easier when I just used that.

I did BP's 'in real life' today for the first time outside clinicals and it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. I only had the lead CNA check me once and it was indeed 80/60. I fumbled around a little but got them all done and didn't embarrass myself too bad. It does get easier!

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Specializes in OB - RN, nursing instructor.

If you are still having difficulty hearing: make sure the metal pieces with the ear pieces are tilted forward, toward your nose (the metal parts with the earpieces are adjustable) and make sure they are deep in your ears or you will hear everything else in the room and be distracted. If all else fails, buy a good stethescope. The cheap ones with the hard plastic ear pieces are harder to hear from. The better stethescopes have soft ear pieces that will not hurt your ears and they also usually have one tube from the bell/diaphragm to the earpieces, not a double tubing. I always encourage students that plan to stay in the medical field to invest in a nice stethescope, it makes a world of difference listening through one. If my students are struggling, I let them try mine so they can see the difference. (our school bought ones have the double tubing and hard plastic earpieces and many students say they are hard to hear through, but they are inexpensive enough for the school to purchase for student use)

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

On this post of links is a webpage that has a virtual BP cuff that you can practice taking blood pressures on:

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Those links are GREAT! Esp the virtual one, I'm going to refer my entire class to it so they can practice hearing the sound. THANK YOU!!!!!:yeah:

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